


Colorless

by CottonCandyHomicide



Series: World Wanderer [1]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Colors, Dragons, Dystopia, Dystopian, Fantasy, Gen, Minor Character Death, No Fandom - Freeform, No beta so feel free to tell me of any mistakes, Original Character - Freeform, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe, Original work - Freeform, Reluctant Protagonist, Science Fiction, Slow Burn, Trans Character, first draft, koi fish, reality shift - Freeform, world wanderer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-05-15 12:03:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14790179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CottonCandyHomicide/pseuds/CottonCandyHomicide
Summary: Goldsboro is a city ran entirely by the company Uni-Cell and all citizens are their workers. Very few are aware of their limited freedom, and even fewer choose to do something about it. Those who do don't last long. In Goldsboro, it is either live in ignorance or live in terror of being terminated. Here people are just a means to an end. Easily replaceable if considered troublesome. However, this system is breaking in unimaginable ways. When everything crumbles those get out alive with be lost to something far more chaotic.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Link to story cover => https://www.deviantart.com/weredragon356/art/COLORLESS-743199070

Before all of this started I lived in the city of Goldsboro. The appearance of matched its atmosphere. Each building was a plain monument of concrete and glass. Signs amounted to no more than stale blocky lettering that stated a location more than advertised. The air always tasted like a room that had been closed up for too long. The wind was always cold, even during the summers.

It was well known that the city was designed with the sole purpose of running at top efficiently. Each block was a perfect square. The corners and sides matched to exact measurements. Width and lengths of the buildings varied, but they all stood at a precisely measured height that depended on close how it stood to Goldsboro’s center. No building stood taller than the Uni-Cell headquarters. It was as high as fifty floors tall, with its neighboring buildings merely topping at twenty. This was where I worked.

Every morning I would be awoken by my alarm clock. That same metallic clanking of that small hammer between the two bells each day just before sunrise. I’d rise from my small bed always tired. I’d never get enough sleep, but back then I didn’t know. It had always been like that for as far as my memory could reach. With every day being an exact copy of the last, only the changing seasons marked the passage of the years.

My bed sat against the wall in the corner. To the right of it was a table that was just long enough to fit my lamp and fish tank. In it was a fish that was no larger than my hand. It was solid white koi that I had more or less gotten on a whim one day. I had named him Hue. I suppose it to be ironic given that he none of the grey shades of him. Either way, I feed him before getting up to wash and dress for work.

There wasn’t much room within my apartment. The bathroom was at the opposite end of the room from bed and yet I could reach it in only a few strides. I was not a very tall person, about average height if I were to guess, but it still felt a bit cramped at times. Although, having anything larger would be pointless since I spent most of my time at work anyway.

In the bathroom, before I had showered I took a pair of scissors and cut my hair down a bit. I always kept it short so it wouldn’t be a bother to deal with. As I washed my black hair fall into the small trash can I had set on the sink, I glanced over my skin. It was a dark grey, a common shade in the city, but it also had lighter grey patches in it. In all my time living in the city I had maybe seen one other person with similar skin in passing. I had always wondered why it was like that when everyone else has a solid grey shade.

Once I was showered and dressed in my grey work clothes, I cooked a quick meal of eggs and rice. I typically cooked a large batch in the morning so that I would have enough for dinner when I got back home. It wasn’t as good as the sandwiches they provided at work but it was the ideal home meal. It beat plain toast at least. Having bread was an unnecessary luxury anyway. Not as much as a pet, but Hue was nice to have as company.

“I’ll see you tonight,” I said to my apathetic roommate.

The moment I opened my door I was met with a river of people making their way through the hallway. Each of them was dressed in the same uniform I had on. Uni-Cell owned every property within the city, so it made sense that the uniforms would be identical as well. I stepped into the flow of people and joined them in the commute to work. Together we all descended down the stairwell of the apartment complex, join with the residents of other floors and proceded out the door into the streets.

By now the sun had begun to rise, casting pale, grey light over the city. The street lights were still shining brightly. Far ahead of me, standing over everything was the Uni-Cell headquarters. Giant U’s sat at the top of each side of the building. Even now they glowed brightly like a second sun. I didn’t know first hand, but apparently, they could be seen from the farthest reaches of the city even during the day.

The roads of Goldsboro were as precisely and evenly paved as anything else within the city. The only time vehicles used the road was late at night for supply purposes for businesses, so the rest of us were free to walk down the roads. Times like this were the only times the city was busy or this noise. Thousand upon thousands of people walking, their footsteps echoing throughout the city. It was kind of incredible.

Thankfully, my walk wasn’t a long one as I only had to walk for a few blocks to the subway station. Only certain people were allowed to use the subway. Since I worked at Uni-Cell’s headquarters, I was part of the few that may use it. The station was just as plain as everything else. The too bright fluorescent lights overhead buzzed overhead as we all made our way down the stairway to the waiting trains.

The movement of people slowed as small cards of papers began fluttering down upon us. Looking up, I saw a person who wasn’t dressed in a work uniform standing at the railing of the first floor. They had a box propped up on the rail and were throwing out dozens of the cards. They were an Awakened, a group of protestors that would often do things like this. More often than not simply spreading graffiti over the walls of important buildings, but I had heard of them spreading their message this way as well.

Out of curiosity I reached out and managed to grab one of the small cards before stepping onto the train platform. The doors were open and waiting for us. I took a seat against the wall and look down at the small card. Handwritten in pen were the words ‘open your eyes to your captivity. Our lives are not our own. Ask yourselves where your freedoms are.’

I didn’t understand what this was supposed to mean. I shoved the card into my pocket. I was in no way a captive of anything. If anyone was, it was going to be the protestor once the Enforcement arrested them. Of course, my life was mine. It was impossible for it to belong to anyone else after all. As for the freedoms, I was as free as any other worker in Goldsboro. I shook my head. There was no point in trying to decipher the ramblings of this person.

The ride entire took about an hour until it reached the basement of the Uni-Cell tower and its final stop of the morning. After entering the building, it was just a short trip up the stairs to the third floor. Unlike the rest of the city, the Uni-Cell tower wasn’t grey, but rather a stark white. The tiled floors, the walls, even the stairwell was white. It marked the clear perfection that was the headquarters.

I worked in one of the many office rooms that were filled with singular cubicles. Mine wasn’t too far from the end. I sat down and turned my computer. A tall stack of papers for today’s tasks was there waiting for me. I immediately set to typing. My job was a simple one. All I had to do was type out each and every letter and symbol that was printed on the papers given to me. At times the hours felt longer than others, but it was preferable than having to work in the factories on the edge of the city.

Click, click, click. The ongoing chorus the typing around me seemed louder than usual. When I thought about it, it sounded similar to distorted static. With the hum of the fluorescent lights, the sound made my head feel numb. I didn't like it, I needed to clear my mind. Standing up, I gathered my completed paper and headed to the drop off area. The done pile was getting a bit tall anyway. As I walked through the large office space, I took glances at my coworkers. They all stared blankly at their screens, only shifting to pick-up and read a new document or place it in their completed piles.

The drop off area was a metal section in the wall with a slit in it where we would slide in our finished work. From there, I didn't know what happened to the completed documents. It isn’t my job to know. I returned to my cubicle and began a new section of my stack. The typing only seemed louder now. My stomach started to turn, but I tried to ignore the feeling and return to my work. My fingers felt heavy and the noises around me were bringing on a headache. I paused my typing and stared at my screen.

'@k624rdx23*fsi b#$4 h14%e@d4 ib86wh^$'

That was what I had just typed out. I had never taken the time to read what I had typed out before. I’d never considered it yet. It must have been a mistake. I looked down at the paper. That is what was written. The rest of the page read similarly. As did the rest of the files in my stack. Maybe there was some kind of a glitch? Turning back to my computer, I tried to go back and check my previous work, but I couldn't. There were only two options on the bottom of the screen. 'exit' and 'submit'. There was nowhere for me to see what I had worked on beforehand.

Shaken, I stood up and headed to the washroom. I walked slowly, glancing over at the other workers’ computer screens. They were all typing in the same nonsense. What was this? Why was no one else bothered by this? Didn't they notice? How long has this been going on? What was the point of us typing in useless letters and symbols?

Once I made into the washroom, I rubbed a handful of cold water on my face. Everything felt strange. The white walls were too bright and the lights only made it worse. I looked down at myself, the grey shirt and pants that made up my uniform made me feel empty. In the mirror, I looked into my own dark grey eyes. Grey, everything around me was grey. Black and white were just extreme forms of grey. I have lived like this for my entire life, why now did everything feel wrong and out of place? What had changed? The card from the train.

Was that it? Could scribblings on paper really do this to me? No. No, I must have been coming down with something. Or I was getting paranoid? Yeah, that's all it was. The card was just messed with my head. This is what they wanted, to get honest working people to doubt Uni-Cell and turn against them. To join them in their pointless resistance against working for their lives and contributing to our society.

I jumped when the dull buzz for lunch sounded. I quickly dried my face and I headed to the cafeteria for lunch. I retrieved a sandwich from one of the machines that lined the walls and found a seat near a corner. The cafeteria was quiet as everyone silently ate their food. Glancing around, I realized that no one looked up during their meal. Everyone stared down at the space in front of them.

I looked toward the door at the sound of rapid footsteps. A man came rushing through the cafeteria doors. He had light shaded hair and a longer cut than the traditional short shave that most of everyone else had. The man looked around frantically as he stumbled in further. I was sitting at one of the front corners of the room, back where he couldn't see me watching him. His eyes were wide and face was twisted in frustration. He was out of uniform. How had a protestor made into the headquarters?

"Can't any of you see that none of this is right?" He shouted.

His voice echoing through the large room. No one answered him. I doubted anyone even spared him a glance. He swung his head around looking for anyone who would acknowledge him. I stared down at my food.

"You weren't meant to waste our lives typing meaningless garbage into a computer. It all amounts to nothing! It serves no purpose but to keep you quiet and complacent. Do you all honestly believe that this is all your lives are worth? Quit this worthless work and make your own choices."

I glanced back up just as two people in black hooded robes came bursting in. I had never seen them before. Maybe they were security for the tower? This was an important building for both Uni-Cell and the city, so it would make sense. But why would they be dressed like that?

One of the figures grabbed the protestor and forced him to the floor. I could hear the sound of his head hitting against the floor. He struggled, but it didn't amount to much. Only a few people bothered to look up as a heavy snap echoed through the air. The man's body was limp as the figure lifted him onto their shoulder and walked out. A grey smear of blood had been all that was left.

Throughout it all, no one gave even the slightest reaction. Once they were gone, everyone continued to look at the space in front of them. None of them cared about what just happened to the man. Or whether we had just watched someone get executed. He was being disruptive, sure. And he had clearly broken into an important building, but killing him on the spot didn’t seem right. Weren’t the protestors supposed to re-educated or something similar? That is what I had believed at least.

The man said that the work we did was meaningless, and after paying attention to what the documents said, it made sense. But if that was the case, then why have all of us do it? What was the propose in paying thousands of people to do meaningless work? Maybe there was something to the mix of letters and numbers that is beyond my understanding. It could be coding or something similar? It could be part of some special language that the technicians upstairs used. That had to be it, coding would look like nonsense to someone who didn't know what they were looking at.

The buzz for the end of lunch sounded and we all got up. I went back to my desk and went to typing. I looked for any patterns or repeating sections within the endless lines of letters and symbols but found nothing discernible. That didn't mean that my job wasn't all for nothing. Typing at a computer all day didn't make me complacent. That protestor was merely trying to make us doubt our work.

I tried to push his words from my mind when I remembered the card from the train. It followed the same vein of mislead thing as the protestor. It was nothing worth thing about. A distraction that I didn't need. What did he know about how we were supposed to live our lives anyway? Things have been like this for centuries, why change them now? Maybe he was upset about not being assigned a job he wanted. It didn’t matter, there were many like him. They wanted more than what they were given.

After returning to my desk, I continued on with my work for the rest of my day without any other distraction. The sound of typing wasn’t as loud as before and my mind was much more at ease. Once the bell for the end of the shift sounded, I was happy to head home to Hue.

After feeding him, I reheated a plate of rice and eggs. There wasn't much in my home to do. I wasn't home enough to bother with decorating, so the walls were bare. At most, I had a plain calendar over my bed and an alarm clock on the shelf below Hue’s tank. It was one of those old round ones, with a tiny hammer between two bells. I got it with the apartment. My walls were a light grey, with a darker grey for the floor. The ceiling was almost white. It was a simple place.

I took a quick shower and changed into pajamas. I turned off all the lights, leaving only the one for Hue’s tank. He swam lazily in his tank as I laid in bed watching him. Though I was tired, I couldn't find it in myself to fall asleep. I couldn’t understand why I’ve never had a problem falling asleep before. Maybe the incident in the cafeteria room was getting to me. I turned to face the wall and closed my eyes. I tried not to think about anything, to focus on getting to sleep.

Eventually, I got up to get a glass from the cabinet over the sink. I filled it with water from the faucet and went over to the kitchen window. The sky was black with tiny stars spread out over it. A half moon hung high over Goldsboro. Even with my window facing away from it, I could see the light from the Uni-Cell tower toward the right. The city was as silent as it had ever been. Nights were meant for resting only. Those who had time loitering around had time to work. That was a Uni-Cell motto. Although, one of the older ones.

Finishing the rest of the water, I stepped back to put the glass in the sink but ended up stumbling into the chair to the dinner table and dropping it. The glass cup shattered against the floor. Hue flopped around in his tank, startled by the loud, sudden noise cutting through the silence.

"Of course," I said to myself as I bent down to pick up the broken glass pieces. Today had been such a mess. It got even worse when I cut myself on one of the glass shards. I should have turned the light off before trying to clean it.

I walked around the table and dumped the glass I had in my hand into the trash. On the wall above it was the light switch.

I reached over and flicked it one. While walking to get the broom, I examined the cut on my finger. It wasn't too bad, but what made me stop was what was coming out of it. Blood, my blood, but it wasn't the dark grey it should have been. Instead, it was something else. It was something I hadn't seen before.

Red. Red blood.

"Red." I had never heard that word before and yet I knew what it was. Red was a color. Colors didn't exist here. But it did, I was looking at it. The red was coming from me. None of this made any sense. What was this, what was I seeing? Why did my blood look like this? None of this made sense. Why was red inside of me and nowhere else? Where was red usually located? I didn't know, all I knew was that it was common. Or at least it was supposed to be.

I began to feel dizzy. The room began to spin. I went over to my bed and sat down, but the feeling never stopped. My apartment seemed to physically twist in on itself. Then items began to gently lift from their places. It began with the dinner table. It lifted from the ground as if was weightless, the chairs followed as well. Next was my bed, with me on it. I tried to jump off, but I only ended up hovering as well. My head was too fuzzy to feel panic.

I reached out as Hue’s tank began to lift up as well. The water rising from the tank. Hue himself swam out of the levitating water. He moved through the air like it was nothing, not bothered by the fact that he was in the air. I moved my arms and legs to try and move, but nothing was within my control. What was happening? Was this some kind of dream?

Like a small stream, blood bubbled up from my cut and drifted off to attached itself to Hue. It gathered and soaked into a large spot on his back, forcing him to flail erratically. The spot grew until it covered his back. The color brightened until it was a vibrant contrast to the white and grey around us. The room began to shrink, engulfing the kitchen and dining set. My bed disappeared into the floor.

I grabbed Hue as he moves toward me. His flailing had stopped but his body began to grow. His tail weakly hit against my arms and his body stretched to fill them. The light drained from the contracting room until we were left in complete darkness. The only thing I could feel was my fish still moving in my arms. The last thing I felt was water from his scales soaking into my shirt, then I felt nothing.

When I woke up I was laying in my bad, my covers were over me as if I had fallen asleep. The conclusion that it was only a dream had only lasted a second. Hue drifted over my bed. He was big now, fully grown. He turned and went to the opposite corner of the apartment, near the bathroom door. I couldn't help but gape at the bright red spot going down the entirety of his back. Lifting my hand, I looked over where the cut was. There was nothing there.

I jumped at the sound of something falling. Hue had come back around and had nudged his food container on the floor with his nose. He was now eating the small pellets off the floor. I sat up and looked around the apartment. Besides Hue, everything else looked normal. The glass cup I broke last night was sitting fully intact on the kitchen counter.

"What happened?" I said as I reached down and picked up the food container.

I set it back on the table and stood up. I went over to the kitchen and made myself a plate of eggs. There wasn't much else I could do. What had happened, happened. Thinking about it and trying to figure it out wouldn't do any good. Not that I had half a clue what to make of last night anyway.

While I ate, I watched Hue move around the apartment. He seemed perfectly content with being able to fly now. I guess the whole room was more preferable to a glass tank. I hadn't noticed before, but the tank wasn't on my dinner table anymore. It was gone. Well, I guess I didn't need it anymore anyway. Hue no longer had gills, so it was no loss to him.

I turned my head to look outside and almost choked on my food. A large fish, a shark I realized, flew by my window. Not a regular grey shark either. This one was bright red. I went to the window and looked out. Hundred of fish of different species and sizes were swimming through the streets. Each and every one of them was bright red. It was the same red as Hue’s spot. I looked back at him. He was rubbing his side against my pillow. He was the only one that wasn't solid red. But I guess that wasn't the strangest thing that has happened.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning the fish were still everywhere throughout the city. A few of them had also managed to get into my apartment building. Some smaller ones had even made down on the subway train. The fish were strange but overall weren't too bothersome. They didn't get too close to anyone. Instead, they mostly kept together in small groups that stayed near the ceiling of the train. It was odd seeing so much bright red everywhere. Especially since nothing like this has ever existed before. The strong color would hurt my eyes if I looked at the fish for too long.

While on my way to work, I realized that no one else even acknowledged the fish. Everyone acted as if this was just another normal part of the day. At best, I saw someone pause when a larger fish cut in front of their path. I couldn’t tell if everyone else was just ignoring them if they were unable to register the actual existence of the fish. I would have thought people would be more interested in them. Unless I was the only one who could see them, which was a disturbing thought.

The constant clicking of my office floor was the same as always, no one minded the minnow-sized fish flying overhead that had somehow managed to make it inside. They darted around every time someone near them would stand up to drop off a workload. They were cute, but still strange to think that something like them would have been unthinkable yesterday. I wish I knew how this happened. It all went by so quickly. One minute I was picking up broken glass and the next I wake up to flying red fish everywhere.

The workday went on normally until at around eleven when I realized that I had gotten paperwork that shouldn't have been in my stack. Unlike everything else, this was a folder. It was a company rule not to be in possession of something that was outside of your department. Taking the folder under my arm, I stood and headed toward the stairs. As long as I dropped off the folder to the Asset Management department on the floor above, I would be fine.

My footsteps echoed through the wide, white hallway. Warm sunlight shined through the large windows next to the stairs. Blurs of red moved over the white stairs as a school of small fish drifted by the window. I looked over the city of various grey. Weaving in and out from between buildings were thousands of fish of different shapes and sizes. Their colors stuck out so vividly against the grey-white sky. In the far distance, over a tall transmitter antenna that nearly touched the sky, a bright red whale passed over the city.

The scene was amazing. I couldn't help but smile at it. I could easily get used to seeing this every day. I was honestly glad this had happened, whatever it had been. However, the moment didn't last long. I had to get the file upstairs.

I stopped at a mid-grey door with a metal slot in it. Next to it was a table with note paper and pens sitting on it. Dropping something off at Asset Management was nothing more than writing a note about who I was and where I found the item. I set the note in the file and slipped them both into a metal slot. Once done, I began making my way back downstairs, but I stopped when I rounded the corner.

Two people in black robes who hadn’t been there minutes before were now standing at the top of the stairs. Between them stood a woman who was dressed in a work uniform. She looked terrified as the two figures loomed over her, peering down with unseen eyes. I was too far away to see what was going on, but with the figure, I knew it wouldn’t be good.

The woman tried to speak just as one of the figures grabbed her by the shoulder. The other one stepped back out of the just the woman was lifted and thrown, screaming over the railing. There was a heavy thud and the hall went silent. I quietly stepped out from behind the corner as the figures descended down the stairs. I peeked over the railing and watched as they picked up the woman’s body that laid broken on the steps. The head hung limp as they carried it away. A grey puddle was to spread over the pristine white floor

My hands hurt from gripping the banister. I was too frightened to move. This had been the second time I had seen these people up close, and it was the second time I had watched them horribly kill someone. I had believed that whoever these people were are here for a reason. But now I didn’t know what to think. These people were just being executed.

Why was that? What was the purpose of doing this? What did these people do that they had to die the way they did? Didn’t they deserve a trial or at least a chance to explain themselves? These were people, they deserved better. The protestor was right, our lives didn’t belong to us. Not if they could be taken so easily and without care.

My legs shook as I made my way down the stairs. I kept my eyes forward and did my best not to look at the blood. It had begun to drip down the steps. It looked like a mess of spilled paint. Why was it grey when mine was red? I glanced back at it. The blood looked so unnatural to me. The protestor from yesterday also had grey blood. Did that make my blood unnatural? It was bright red in a place where color didn't exist. Why was my blood different? Was there something wrong with me?

When I made it back to my desk and continued typing documents into my computer. The hum of the AC was so much louder than it should have been. Whatever I did, I couldn't focus on anything except what I had seen. These people in robes were going around and killing people, and no one cared. They didn’t even notice. No one except me. I heard the man shouting yesterday. I had watched as the woman was pushed over the stairs. Did that make me a target too? Was I in danger of getting killed as well?

I cleared the thoughts from my head and focused back on my computer screen. I just had to focus on typing. That was all I could do. It was all that I had to do to keep myself safe and unnoticed. These people must have been only going after people that were causing problems. I hadn’t done anything wrong, hey had no reason to go after me. But that woman didn’t seem to be doing anything wrong either. What if I was wrong and they were just killing people at random.

There was no way of knowing who these people really were. There was no one to ask and I could question them myself. All I had was the assumption that they were supposed to be here because no one else paid them any mind. If they were some sort of security then who were they looking for? Was there a group of protestors within the tower? Did they think that whoever wasn’t working was a problem? But if I just stayed at my desk and did my work I should be fine.

Whoever these robed people were, they had free roam of Uni-Cell. It was as if they were just as much of a part of it as I was. Maybe more so. They were always roaming around the city. This office probably had cameras everywhere. Not just in the workrooms but also in the hallways and the cafeteria. Someone could have easily seen acting odd if they were watching. My hands began to shake. I had to force myself to stare at my screen. I didn't know what they were looking for, I had to be careful. All I needed to do was watch the screen and type. That was all I had to do. Type, just type. It was the same thing I had been doing for years. The same thing everyone else did.

I heart jumped when the buzzer for lunch sounded and with a heavy sigh, I shakily stood up. I began to the shake when I noticed a dark figure standing next to my cubicle wall. They weren't paying attention to me, rather looking around the room. Just as I stepped past them, they turned and looked at me. Even this close to them, I could see nothing but unending blackness underneath the hood.

I kept my eyes forward, I left my desk and followed my coworkers to the cafeteria. I wanted to run. To flee the building and the unseen eyes of the robed people to hide at home. But I couldn't, I was stuck acting like I didn't know these things were prowling around. When I got to the cafeteria I was horrified to see that there were more dark figures there.

They stood around like statues, while everyone else apathetically walked around them. I bought a sandwich from a vending machine and quickly sat down at the table furthest from our observers. Once everyone was seated and eating, the figures began to move around. They leaned in close to people while they ate, looking for anything that made them stand out.

One came over to my table. It moved silently closer to an older woman near the end. I quickly looked down to the spot in front of me. It was impossible to tell where they were looking. So I focused on eating my lunch to try not to seem bothered by their presence. Eating was the last thing I wanted to do right now, but it was the safe only thing I could do. A thin, bony white hand was set next to me as hovered further over the table.

There was a whimper from across the table. Without moving my head, I glanced up just enough to see the woman in front of me. Her hands were shaking and tears slid down her face as she quietly cried. She looked a few years younger than I was. She gazed at me and I could see in her eyes that she was different like me. There was a sense of awareness in them that everyone else lacked.

Her eyes moved to the robed figure next to me. I looked back down, but from my peripheral vision, I could see the creature leaning in close, moving to look the woman in the face. Her body began to shake as panic took over her.

I took a bite of my sandwich and choked it down. There was nothing I could do to help her. Especially when another dark figure moved up behind her. I didn't move as the girl was dragged from her seat, screaming. She begged for help, but I stayed still. I didn’t look up to see what would happen, only listened as there was a wet crunch. The girl gave one last weak, gurgled sob before going silent. The figure next to me moved away from the table as I heard the woman’s body being dragged away.

When the lunch buzzer eventually sounded, I went to the bathroom. In the stall, I held my hands over my mouth as I cried. I didn't understand anything anymore. Why was this happening? What had she done wrong to deserve dying like that? She had merely been eating her lunch as everyone else had been.

"I need to get out of here," I whimpered into my hands. I needed to get home.

I quickly dried off my face and went back to my desk. There were still robed figures moving around the cubicles. I did my best to ignore them. I wrote up a sickness report, saying that I was having stomach issues and quickly submitted it. I grabbed my work bag and left. At least three hooded forms watched me as I left the office. Thankfully, none of them made a move toward me.

The trains didn’t run during this time of the day, so I had no other choice but to walk all the way home. Once I was a block or so away from the Uni-Cell building I broke out into a run. I needed to run. Not only to get away faster but to feel like I was able to do something to protect myself from the robed people. I couldn't remember the last time I had ever run before. I was certain that I had never done so before in my life until now. There had never been a reason to do so before either.

Unfortunately, I became winded fairly quickly and soon had to switch to a walking pace. I looked around and saw none of the black-robed figures. There was only a handful of people on the streets, none of them paid me any attention. The masses of red fish were still flying through the city. I tried to enjoy them. To let their bright colors and glittering scales distract me, but I was too shaken up. Instead of heading directly towards home, I decided to walk around the city. Hopefully, it would calm me down some.

Goldsboro was a dull city. The streets were like a grid. Every corner of every block had an intersection at it. The asphalt of there streets was a perfect dark, near black, grey. The roads were smoothed down perfectly, with no cracks or potholes in sight. Stop lights switched from the check to the X in a synchronized fashion with the other stop lights around them.

The streets were free of trash and loiterers. Even narrow alleys were neat and kept clean. Dull wasn't the right term for it. Bland was closer, but it didn't truly describe what the city lacked. Creativity. There was no creativity in Goldsboro. Everything served a propose and didn't express anything outside of that. Why was that? Creativity wasn't profitable and efficient, I suppose.

For no other reason than curiosity, I decided to wander into a nearby store. It was one that sold general household items that anyone would need. Cleaning supplies, light bulbs, kitchen utensils, things like that. The shelves were clean and neat. Everything had been set in its specific spot, with none of the shelves over or understocked. All the labels and packaging were the same color of grey, with the same type of white text.

The store was silent as I walked around. The only other person was the clerk, who hadn't paid me any attention when I walked in. They were busy setting boxes on shelves. They moved mechanically, stacking each on the shelf at the exact same pace, with the exact same movement. It was rare that I saw anyone outside of work and my commute. I bet they never had to worry about those things watching constantly, waiting for a slip-up. I wish I had a job like this.

I moved toward the back of the store, where the miscellaneous items were shelved. I wasn't looking for anything in mind, just wanted to see what was here. I couldn't remember the last time I had physically walked into a store before. I, like most people in Goldsboro, shopped online and had what they wanted to be delivered to them. It saved time and provided jobs. Since I worked for Uni-Cell, I got a five percent off employee discount for using their service. Now that I think about it, Uni-Cell had the only delivery service in the city.

The miscellaneous shelf was the only one that was not full. The only thing in it were books. They were all copies of the same book. There were at least two dozen of them placed neatly on the shelf. I randomly picked one up from the middle and read the title. 'How to live a more efficient life.' It was an interesting title for a book.

It was an in-depth instructional book about the best ways to cut down time on doing household or personal things so people can spend more time working. The recommended diet options were short meals full of nutrients and proteins, mostly food choices that Uni-Cell owned. I hadn’t realized that they published the book too. It wasn’t much of a surprise, Uni-Cell everything else within the city.

I ended up taking the book. This had been the first time I had wanted to physically purchase something for myself. Usually, when I ordered food to restock my kitchen I would fill out paperwork that was always left laying out in a pile at the lobby at my apartment. Afterward, I would submit it and get the food within a few days. When I approached the clerk about buying the book, they just waved me on. Had they allowed me to steal it or was that just how physical stores worked?

I had absolutely no intention of using the suggestions in it, but I still wanted it. Maybe because it was useless to me. Everything in Goldsboro had a specific purpose, this book was written to make sure that the people were the same way. I guess it was ironic that I wanted it entirely because I would never use it in that way.

I bought the book and left the shop. The first chapter talked about why working hard was important. Self-fulfilling, giving back to society, providing for one's self, and things like that. Free time was for the lazy, according to the book. Idle time was wasted time. Those who didn't want to work for what they wanted shouldn't have anything. Stopping I looked around myself. A dull city like Goldsboro was what single-minded ideology got people. But what did I know, as far as the book was concerned, I was just another cog to keep this city running. Individually led to chaos, which led to the fall of civilization.

Chapter two of the book was about cutting out distraction. Music, art, pets, decoration, and socializing of any form were only met to distract people from work. Companions were too, though the book used long-winded wording to explain why. Essentially saying that with technology in reproduction today relationships were outdated.

I didn't know my parents. I didn't know any of my family or even if I had any. I didn't have friends. I didn't even know the names of some of my coworkers, the people I saw every day for years. Hue was the only living thing I interacted with out of choice. That wasn't good. People lived in such big cities as this one because they liked being around each other right? It couldn't be just because it was more efficient to live and work near each other.

I suddenly felt very lonely. Closing the book, I slid it into my bag and headed home. Hue was the only one I had in this world. I needed to be near him. Even if was just a fish. Hue was lying in my bed when I got home. He thumbed his tail against the pillow as I closed the door and walked inside. I was worried until he got up and swam toward me once I was halfway toward him. He flew over to me and lightly butted his head against mine.

"Hey, Hue. Were you taking a nap?" He responded by nuzzling into my hair more.

It had been a while since my last sick day, so I wasn't sure what to do with myself, not that I much in my apartment anyway. I sat on the bed and flipped through my new book. There were twenty-eight chapters that made up about four-hundred-and-fifty pages. Personally, I don't think the author needed that many pages to say that they thought that people weren't worth anything more than things to further society.

What was the point of it all then? If all people were worth was to work, then what were they working toward? If it was a better future for humanity, then why not let people step back and see what their work contributed to? No one knew what they were working toward or why. Who could be benefiting from all this work? The people who were the heads of Uni-Cell were the first to come to mind. I didn't know who any of them were. I guess there was no point in someone like me knowing anything about the people I worked for. The paper I found on the train was right.

I set the book on the dinner table. Kicking off my shoes, I laid on my bed and relaxed. I'd never had a break from work before. There wasn't much of a chance that I was going back to work tomorrow. But what could I do instead? I guess I could look for a different job, maybe there was a way to get assigned a new one. But I had never heard of anyone doing that before. I wasn’t even sure it something like that was even a possibility.

It wasn’t like I could leave the city either. I had no means of getting out or even how far the next city was located. Even if I did, I didn't know anything about moving or how to look for a job. I'd been working at Uni-Cell for as long as I could remember. I'd never thought of doing anything else. Outside of typing on a computer, I don't have any other skills that would be useful.

"What should I do?" I asked into the air. All I did was my work. All I know how to do is my work. I was nothing outside of my job. I relaxed into my bed and tried to clear the frantic thoughts from my head. Leaving Goldsboro wasn’t an option anyway.

Hue flew over and rested in my stomach. He rolled to his side and yawned. I hadn’t known fish could do that. He was heavier than I thought he would be, but I'd never seen a koi as large as him either. I reached out and pet his side. He didn't move to get away, so I continued. His scales were cool and smooth. His side moved up and down as he breathed.


	3. Chapter 3

It was dark when I opened my eyes again. I hadn’t even realized that I’d drifted off in the first place. I looked over to my side table and saw that the clock on the side of my bed read eleven forty-seven. I wanted nothing more than to drift back to sleep, but an odd noise kept me gripped to consciouses. Sitting up I looked to see Hue was mouthing at his food container as he rolled it over the floor. The sound of him pushing it over must have woken me up.

I got off the bed and picked up the round container. Hue followed me into the kitchen, where I poured his food on a small plate. While he ate, I filled a bowl of water from the sink. Next, I went over to the window and looked out. The streets were empty and silent. The only sounds were from Hue and the building's AC running.

Unlocking the window, I opened it. Though, not wide enough for Hue to get through, but just enough so that I can smell the night air and listen to the wind blow through the city. Goldsboro had always been a quiet city, but at night it seemed almost deserted. It was hard to think that a place that had so many people in one place could be so quiet.

I sit on the kitchen table and stare out the window for a while. Dim street lights lite the empty streets. A few fish flew by the buildings nearby. In the darkness of the night, their bodies glowed. I could see the glow of more of them high in the clouds. Large red spots shined within the clouds where to fish gathered. It was amazing to see.

I picked up the book from the table and flipped through it. Air blew from the flying pages, making a paper fall to the floor. When I picked it up, I saw that it wasn’t one of the pages, but a folded piece a paper. Setting the book down, I opened it up and saw that it was a map of Goldsboro. At the edge of the city, where the warehouse district was located, there was a building that was circled in dark ink. I looked the map over but found nothing else written on it.

“I wonder what’s there,” I said to myself. I doubted there was any harm in checking it out. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do. This is what people who didn’t work twelve hours a day did, right? They went out around the city and found things to do.

Going to my closet, I pulled out a jacket and a flashlight. I checked to make sure it worked before putting in the pocket of the jacket. I put the map in the other one before heading out. Hue tried to go out the door with me, but I pushed him back. I didn’t want him flying off someplace where I couldn’t get him back. He was the only one I had after all.

The empty streets had a different feel when walking through them compared to looking down on them from eight stories up. The wind was stronger too. I zipped up my jacket and pulled the hood over my head. I made my way east, where the building on the map was. The subways didn’t run this late at night, so I was forced to walk the whole way. With the city mapped out like a grid, it would be hard to get lost. But it would take a while to get there.

I tried to keep each step I took as quiet as possible. It wasn’t so much that I was worried about being heard. It was more like I didn’t want to make a lot of noise. Kind of like coughing in a quiet room, it felt like I was doing something wrong even if I wasn’t. Goldsboro didn’t have a curfew. With everyone working so much, there was never a need for one.

The streets may have been creepy, but at least they were well lit. Even the narrowest alleys had at least two or three lights shining into them. That didn’t much to help the buildings looming above me. They were off-putting enough in the daylight. Now, it was like I was walking through a city of monoliths. I couldn’t help but glance through each and every window and glass door I passed. I saw nothing but darkness in them. No lights to deter robbers, no late night shops, nothing. I felt alone and isolated. I wish I could have brought Hue with me.

After about an hour, the building I passed were getting smaller. Instead of towering concrete forms, I was now walking amongst ones that were only five or six stories tall. They were wider than the ones further in the city and mostly consisted of manufacturing structures. The parking lots around them were larger, as were the spaces between each building. The open area was even more unnerving. The wind had gone down, but the air was getting colder. With less building around, it was getting darker too. I had never been this toward the edge of the city before. I didn’t like it.

I checked the map to assure that I was going the correct way. There wasn’t really a need, I had only been walking straight. I would continue on this road for a few more blocks and then make a right. It was always easy to get around Goldsboro. That was the only good thing I could see about this city anymore. Eventually, I came to the intersection where I would turn. I had another seven blocks to go.

In no time, I had made it to the building circled on the map. It was a large warehouse that looked to have been abandoned for quite some time. The windows were either broken or boarded up. There was a tall chain link fence surrounding the building. It only occurred to me now that the map might have been nothing or something from long before. It could have ended up in the book because someone didn’t want to bother throwing it away.

Since I had bothered to walk all the way out here, I was going to at least look around a bit. I followed the fence and circled the building. I found the door to it, but there was a large lock that was severely rusted over. I kept walking toward the back of the building, where piles of trash bags had been left sitting out. Hidden behind the large pile of trash was an opening in the fence. The twisting metal had been peeled back to create a gap, just large enough for a person to squeeze through.

I pushed my hand against the detached fencing and stepped through. It was much darker back here than at the front of the building. I took out my flashlight and shined it around. There were discarded pieces of metal scattered all around. Some of it looked like parts to a machine, others looked like twisted junk. All of it was heavily rusted over. The concrete around the warehouse was full of cracks and holes. Long blades of grass sprouted put from them.

I waved my flashlight around, catching nothing of interest. More bags of trash, rotting wood boards, and a pile of dirty tires. I was ready to turn back and begin the long walk back home, but I figured that I might as well see if I could get a look inside.

I followed the side of the building until I came to a large loading door. There was a large lock on it. I moved on to a smaller side door, but the handle has been broken off. I considered finding a window to climb through, maybe stalking some things to get up to one. But I didn't want to risk the chance of getting trapped inside.

"This is a waste of time," I said to myself. The gust of wind around me. It was getting colder. Rubbing my arms, I decided to head back. There was no point to all this. The map had lead to the middle of nowhere.

I headed back to the opening in the fence. As I got close to it, my foot caught on a piece of metal and I fell. I wasn't hurt, but the flashlight had gone flying. It had landed a few feet away in a pile of dirt. I stood and dusted myself off, before walking to go get it.

In the dirt around the flashlight were footprints. They weren't mine. I picked up the flashlight and scanned more of the dirt. The footprints weren't random, they were all heading further down the other side of the warehouse. With the wind blowing like it was, they couldn't have been more than a few hours old. I followed them. The fence was a lot closer to the building compared to the other side. I could barely shuffle myself through.

Soon I reached a door that looked similar to the one I saw before. The handle on this one was still intact, and when I tried it, it opened. I pulled it open just a crack. Inside, I could see a dim flickering light coming from what looked to be the center of the building. I switched off my flashlight and stepped inside.

The air was full of dusk and I struggled not to cough. The inside was cluttered, with most of trash, crates, and smaller bits of machinery were pushed towards the walls. Shadows moved around the light. They were people from what I could tell. I moved as quietly as I could through the warehouse. Without know who these people are or why they're here, it probably wasn't a good idea to just walk up to them.

When I got closer to the people, I realized the light was coming from a fire on the floor. The flames looked to be contained in a short metal barrel. There were at least five or six people sitting on the floor around it. They were speaking quietly as if they were worried about being overheard. One of them passed something to the person next to them. It looked to like a small box. I was too far away to know for sure.

I wanted to get closer and introduce myself, but I had to consider that they might not be friendly and would not appreciate a stranger dropping on their activity. For all, I knew this could be a hideout for a gang or some other criminal activity. Curiosity wasn't worth the risk.

"So what do you all think of the fish?" One of them, a man, asked loud enough for me to here. I moved closer, just enough to hear clearly while still staying in the shadows.

"This is the first time something like this has happened," another person, a woman, responded. "I think it is a sign that things are changing. The world is fighting back against the corruption."

"But for how long?" a third one asked. "If we don't do something, the people at Uni-Cell will change it back. We need to do something."

"Like what?" The second one spoke up again. "The Enforcement has been taking out more and more people like us. It has the others scared. They won't even come here anymore. They've given up."

"We need to recruit more people," a fourth person said. "With the fish showing color, more people are waking up and see the world for what it is."

"Yes, but the Enforcement has been cracking down too. We can't just go around looking for allies anymore. We have to be smart about this."

"We need to show everyone that there are others like them, that they aren't alone in this."

"Yes, but how? We can't do anything risky."

I began walking back to the door. Whatever this was it sounded like trouble. I didn't know what the Enforcement was or who they were after, but it sounded a lot like those people who have been killing my coworkers. If this group sounded like the protestors who had been causing trouble around the city. If that was true, then I had to get out. I quickly made it back across the building. I reached out toward the door, but it was pulled away from me. In the open doorway stood a tall man with light grey skin.

"Who are you?" He asked, nearly shouting. I was too frightened to say anything. The sound of the man's voice had caught the attention of the others.

"Is that Seth?" One of them asked.

"Who's this newbie?" The man in front of me asked. I looked back to see all of the ones by the fire, stand and begin walking toward us. Rushing forward, I try and push past the larger man. He was stronger than me, and easily pushed me back and to the floor. "You’re not going anywhere."

"Who is this?" A woman asked as she and the others walked up. They all stood around me, each of them wearing the same uniform I was.

"I don't know," the man, Seth, said. "I caught them trying to leave."

"Who are you?" another man asked. "Who did you find this place?"

"Are you part of the Enforcement?" Seth asked.

"The Enforcement doesn't have regular people," someone else said with a scoff.

"With things how they are, they might start dragging regular people into helping them," a second woman said.

"Who are you?" Seth asked.

"Sol, my name is Sol," I told them.

"Who did you find this place?"

"There was a map. I bought a book and there was a map to this place in it. I was just curious."

"What book?"

"It was a self-help book. If fell out of the back of it. I didn't know any of you were here. Honest."

“You came all the way out here at night, just because it was marked on a map?”

“Don’t be rude, Seth. You can’t get mad at them for being curious,” a woman said. She had short light grey hair and light skin. She offered me her hand. “My name is Zoe.”

"I'm Sol." I took her hand and let her pull me to my feet. I turned to leave, but Seth was still blocking the door. "Can I leave, please?"

He crossed his arms. Another man walked up. He was shorter than the other one. He was bald and had dark skin. "If you bothered to come all the way out here, then that means you're different like us. You awakened."

"I don't know what that means," I said.

"You've broken out of the haze that has everyone else in the city trapped," Seth said. "They live empty lives, only working all day every day. Under the guise that they are contributing to Uni-Cell. If you aren't careful the Enforcement will come for you."

"Stop trying to scare them," Zoe said. "Don't listen to him. As long as you're careful, you should be fine. Just act how everyone else does."

I nodded and glanced back towards the door. Seth hadn't moved from in front of it and he was still staring me down. All of them were watching me. "Can I leave now?"

"You came all the way here, might as well stay a while," Seth said. This was the first time I've ever disliked someone before.

"Yeah, come to sit with us," the other woman said. "You can join our group."

"What group?" I asked. It was better if they didn't know I had been eavesdropping.

"We are like you. We are awakened and live more aware than other people," the dark-haired woman said. "We are trying to find a way to awaken more people like us. To free their minds."

"I'm not sure I'm cut out for something like that," I said.

"Maybe not," Seth said "but it would be better than living as a mindless slave, doing whatever Uni-Cell tells you to do. Besides, you'll be safer with us than on your own. If the Enforcement finds out that you have awakened, they'll kill you."

"Seth," the dark-haired woman warned.

"Are the Enforcement those people in the dark uniforms?" I asked.

"Only if you consider those monsters people," Seth said.

"So you've seen them?" Zoe asked.

"Yes."

"Then I bet you know what they are capable of?" Seth asked.

"Yes, I do. And I don't want to do anything that'll make them come after me. Sorry, but I can't join your group." Before any of them could try to convince me otherwise, I pushed passed Seth and left the warehouse. I turned on my flashlight and quickly made my way back home. I had enough to deal with, without being dragged into some kind of radical group against those monsters.


	4. Chapter 4

I only got a couple of hours of sleep before the sun came up. I didn't get out of bed until an hour later. I was so distracted about being caught sneaking around last, that I didn't realize what those people meant. There were others like me. People that knew that something was weird with Goldsboro. With the people in it. Maybe I should have stayed and talked with them.

I don't think I was the kind of person who could stand against those people from Uni-Cell, The Enforcement. Besides, they were dangerous and I knew nothing about fighting. I was better off hiding in my apartment.

I got out of bed long enough to give Hue his breakfast and get my book from the dinner table. I had left the map sitting in my jacket pocket overnight. I flipped through the book until I came upon a chapter about 'Unions and other associations'. Most of it was cautionary stories and worst case scenarios of how unions, and groups like them, take advantage of workers and restrict their benefits. I didn't know enough about unions to know who exaggerated the book was making things.

I skimmed through a few other chapters, before getting bored. I looked around my apartment, looking for something to do. Hue had laid down on the bed next to me and appeared to be taking a nap.

Laying around and reading this book was going to drive me insane. Going back to work wasn't an option. I knew I had to return eventually, maybe tomorrow, but I needed at least one more time away. I considered going back to the warehouse, but there wasn't really any reason to. At best, it was just a big empty building. Not exactly a place worth visiting a second time. That left wandering around Goldsboro.

I left Hue with a plate of food and a large bowl of water and headed downstairs. I went in the opposite direction of last night, toward the center of the city. The streets weren't as empty as the night before, but the people were still sparse. Those who were walking around didn't seem like they were out for a stroll like I was. They moved at a brisk pace. Keeping their eyes forward and never once looking around themselves. When I passed one person, they didn't even spare me a glance.

That's how everyone was. That was how I used to be. I don't remember much about how I used to act. I just did things. Work was the only thing that mattered. I dedicated my life to it, everyone did. I only got Hue on a whim. Thinking back, I had been out shopping and happen to glance into a pet store. It was closing down. Bought out by Uni-Cell, as most small businesses had been. I got Hue for a third of the regular price. He was so small back then. I didn't know were any more pet stores in the city were. At least not one that I could afford to buy anything from. Luckily, the grocery stores that delivered my food sold fish food too.

I stopped at the park. The city only had one and it covered about one square city block end to end. There wasn't much to it. It was mostly grass, with some trees, a few benches, and a fountain in the center. Sidewalks crossed through the middle of the park and around the outside. This was the only place to see plants inside the city. They had all been removed to make room for buildings and other 'useful' things.

The only thing keeping the air breathable were the vents on curbs the pumped out fresh air. In addition to providing oxygen, then vents, along with the air filtration systems that were placed all over the city, were also made to reduce the number of bacteria and airborne diseases. Fewer people getting sick meant fewer days off.

I sat on the concrete edge of the fountain and looked into the water. The tiny, white square tiles shined in the warm sunlight as it reflected off the clear water. Fish gently flew around the fountain. A few of them took drinks from the pooling water, while others splashed through the flowing water. The fish added so much color to an otherwise dull park. To be honest, I didn't understand why Uni-Cell hasn't torn it all up and built up another office. Not that I was complaining.

I reached down at touched the water. It was cold. Compared to the warming air and the hot concrete I sat on, it felt nice. It made me wish I could swim in it too. Flying seemed nice as well. To be able to go wherever I wanted and be free to go and do whatever I wanted. What would I even do if I could?

I looked around. There wasn't anyone else around, save for two people walking together down the sidewalk. They seemed to be talking with each other. It was strange, most people didn't talk unless they had to for work. As they got closer, I realized that I had seen them before. They were at the warehouse last night. I stood up to leave, but that only drew the attention of one of them.

"Hey, I remember you," one said. He had dark skin and a shaved head. "From last night, right? I never got a chance to introduce myself. I'm Zeal."

"Um, yeah," I said as they both walked up. "Nice to meet you."

"So, what are you doing out here?" The other one asked. I remembered that her name was Zoe.

"Nothing, just hanging around."

"Be careful. If the Enforcement catches you, they might take you in," Zeal warned. "They usually don't go around the city during the day, but who knows with them."

I nodded. "What are you two out doing?"

Zoe held up a rounded container with a light grey label and a black cap on it. The label on the side read 'canned paint'. "We're going around spreading art around the city."

"What does that mean?" I asked. It felt like I had heard those words before, but couldn't place it.

"Art is like paintings and music and stories and other things that have been erased from our world," Zoe answered. "So, we are going around the city and bring it back."

"How?"

"By painting on the side buildings and other public and well-seen places," Zeal said.

"Isn't that just graffiti?"

"Yes, but with a purpose," Zoe said as she began walking. "You're welcome to join us if you want. It'll give you a chance to see what we do."

"If you think it's too much for you, you can leave whenever you want," Zeal added.

I decided to go with them around the city. The first place they stopped at was at the end of an alleyway. Zoe painted first, using the black spray paint dark lines over the smooth concrete. Zeal seemed content with watching her work, but I was nervous. I watched out the alley for any sign that the people in grey, the Enforcement, was nearby. Only fish passed by.

"Don't worry," Zeal said, "The Enforcers are rarely seen out in daylight, and when they are it is usually towards the edge if the city. They mainly go for people who are trying to leave the city, or are stirring trouble inside office buildings where more people can be awakened."

"What happens if they start searching through the city?" I asked.

"We'll just find a new way to spread our message," Zoe said.

"What message?"

"That we awakened are out here and intend to fight back," she said.

Zoe stepped back and looked over her work. She had painted a picture of a bird in flight. The lines were uneven and blurred, but it was nice. Zoe also added small clouds around it. The entire picture was only about four feet high, with it about two feet off the ground. Zoe painted a swirl with an X through it next to Zeal’s painting.

The next was on the back of a bus stop. They painted over the glass of the map. It was Zeal who painted this time. He painted trees with flowers around it. He also painted the swirl and X. One the third stop, a window of a closed-down store, Zeal just painted the swirl symbol, this time larger.

"Why do you keep painting that?" I asked. "What does it mean?"

"It the symbol of the Awakened," Zoe explained. "Seth decided on it. It isn't much, but it shows that we are united as a group."

"You said the more people that see this, then more that will awaken. But isn't that a bad thing? That just means more people will be caught by the Enforcement," I said as we began walking to someplace new.

"There is a chance of that, yes. But it also means that there will be more people who will join and help us overthrow Uni-Cell," Zeal said. "We have a much better chance to change things together. And once everything is settled, we'll bring back all the color and creativity that has been taken. Hopefully, we will be able to restore the damage to the world."

"What damage?"

"It's no surprise that you don't know. Without any newspapers or radio to spread information around, people don't realize it is happening," Zeal said.

"It may seem like a small thing, but creativity and art made this world what it is. In a way, it ran on it," Zoe explained. "When it was taken, the world began to die. Who's to say if the people doing this know that they are killing this country, or if the even care. Either way, we have to do something to get it back, or we will all die."

"How do you know all this?"

"Seth told us about it. He learned it from people in another city," Zeal said as he stopped to spray paint the side of a building.

"That all sounds hard to believe," I said.

"I know does," Zoe said calmly. "It is one of the reasons it is so hard for us to recruit others."

"How do you know the world is dying?" I asked as I looked around the city.

Zeal pointed to the sky. It was with filled with fish calmly flying in every direction. It was strange but peaceful. "Fish are supposed to be in the water. The last birds haven't been seen in over a decade. Plants are nearly extinct. Cities used to communicate with each other and other places around the world. Ever since the colors were taken, things have been disappearing, but those who haven't awakened can't notice."

"But how do you know these things aren't happening on their own? We don't know how the world is supposed to work."

Zoe shook her head. "There used to be books about how nature and society worked, but Uni-Cell destroyed them all to keep people ignorant."

"We used to have one of them ourselves," Zeal said bitterly. "but the Enforcement took it when they raided our old base."

"Along with several of our friends," Zoe added.

I lagged behind as the two of them quietly continued down the street. We cut through an alley of a small building without a sign. Near the back, where the shadow of the building made it the darkest, Zoe pulled open a door. Zeal waved me in and I followed them.

The first thing I noticed was the echoing, grating sound coming from inside. Dust floated through the dimly lit room. Near the center, where two lamps sat atop a large metal table. On the table, sitting between the lamps was a small printer. Large stacks of papers sat around it. Standing around the table were two more people from the warehouse. One was who I think was called Della. The other, I instantly recognized as Seth. I could tell by the annoyed look in his eyes, that he recognized me too.

"What are they doing here?" He asked.

"We met them at the park and offered to let them join us," Zeal said.

"We were just going around painting walls, no big deal," Zoe added as Seth walked up to us.

"That isn't the point. We can't just let anyone come here, even if they are awakened. This is serious work that could get us killed if we are found out." Seth said as he stopped in front of us. He glared down at me. "Leave."

"Hold on," Della said from the table. "For all you know, they may have decided to join us."

"We don't have time for maybes. Either they intend to join us or not. Otherwise, you are nothing but a liability to us."

"Fine, I'm leaving," I said. I stepped back through the open door and down the alley. I was all the way to the street when someone called out to me.

"Hey, wait," Zoe said as she caught up to me. "I'm sorry about Seth. He's always like that. It's one reason why it's so hard to get people to join us. But if you ever do change your mind, you are welcome to meet up with us at the warehouse."

She handed me a sheet of paper. In the middle were a set of large open eyes. Above them in bold lettering said 'Be Awakened'. At the bottom, it said 'See past the constricting veil of conformity and contentment.' If this was to be motivational, then they came up short. Seth must have designed it. Regardless, I kept the flyer.

"One more thing before you going," Zoe said, her voice dropping. "It would be a good idea to go back to work every once in a while. If you're gone too long, the Enforcement might come looking for you. Most of us randomly pick a day every few weeks or so. Just some friendly advice."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," I told her.

We parted ways and I began heading home. All that talk about the Enforcement had made me anxious. I was looking over my shoulder for the whole walk. Once I made it back to my apartment, I fed Hue and myself. I placed the flyer in the drawer next to my bed. I began reading the abnormal self-help book again from the beginning. I hadn't yet finished all the way through the first time, but it wasn't like the ending mattered anyway.

The sun had begun to set when a low hum rung through the city. Standing, I went over towards the window. The sound came from all around, carried in the air. The few people on the streets stopped as a monotone voice began to speak. A layer of crackling static accompanied it.

"Attention citizens. There has been an increase in public vandalism in the city. These acts have disruptions in daily life and encouraged others to commit criminal acts as well. In response to this outbreak in crime, the city has decided it issues a city-wide curfew, which shall take place at nine o'clock. In addition, Enforcement officials will be patrolling the city. We ask that you cooperate with these Enforcers. Those who refuse will be detained for questioning."

The city fell back into silence. I had never heard a city-wide announcement before, I knew there was a system in place for emergencies, but this was the first time I had ever experienced one. It must have been because of the graffiti Zoe and Zeal painted today. I hoped they were safe, but this was why I didn't want to be a part of their group. The Enforcement was part of Uni-cell and they owned every part of this city. I get why they wanted to fight back, but they were more than outmatched.

I closed the window and pulled the curtain over it. After getting ready for bed, I set my alarm clock for tomorrow morning. With the Enforcement beginning to patrol around the city, I didn't have any other choice but to go back to work. If taking days off was consider suspicious activity, then I couldn't risk it. So it was back to work for me. I was going to miss sleeping in.


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up to a thumping on my door. At first, I thought it was someone knocking, possibly the Enforcement. I sat up so fast that my head spun. But when I looked at the door, I saw that it was Hue. He was hitting his tail against the door.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I got out of bed. He stopped and flew toward me. He pressed his head into my back as if he was trying to urge me forward. "What's wrong?"

He moved from around me and went back to the door. I went over and pressed my ear against it. It was silent. When I looked through the peephole and saw that the hallway was empty. As quietly as I could manage, I opened up the door and looked down the hall. Nothing. Just an empty hallway, lined by doors. I was about to push the door close when something hit my head. Hue's tail hit against my head as he rushed down the hallway. I ran after him.

"Hue, come back," I called after him. I kept my voice barely above a whisper. I didn't want to risk disturbing anyone. The punishment for being too noisy was to be evicted.

The stairwell to my apartment didn't have any doors or walls separating the different floors, which meant that Hue was able to make it all the way down to the lobby. By the time I caught up he had begun hitting his tail against the glass doors. The force of it was strong enough to open the door a crack.

"Hue, stop it," I said while walking toward him.

He obeyed, instead, choosing to push his head against the glass. "Why are you doing this? Where are you trying to go?"

I reached up, as he pushed the door open, his tail slipping through my hand. Hue took off down the street. I went after him, running as fast as I could manage, but even if I could catch up to him, he was too high for me to reach. I paused for barely a moment to take notice of the multitude of papers covering the streets.

Hue kept a straight path through the city as if he knew where he was going. I wanted to call after him, but after hearing the announcement earlier, I couldn't risk anyone hearing me. Being put at night was a sure sign that I wasn't like everyone else.

Looking around, I didn't see anyone else around. The night was just as quiet and empty as yesterday. But tonight, as a cold wind blew around me, hundreds, maybe thousands of the papers were kicked up. I managed to snatch one out of the air. With all these papers flying around, I could take my eyes off of Hue or I could lose him. I glanced down at it just long enough to see what was on it. It was an exact copy of the flyer that Zoe had given me.

She and the others must have spread them around the city. But why like this? Wouldn't displaying the posters on poles and walls have been a better option? Maybe they thought this way would draw more attention?

It didn't matter, I had to focus on getting Hue back home. He was still a good distance ahead of me and I was getting tired. I had never run for this long before and I was reaching my limit. My lungs were burning. Every step seemed to be getting slower and slower. I was forced to realize that there was no way I would ever catch him. Hue was lost to me the second he got outside.

My foot landed awkwardly on the side of a curb and I fell to the ground. My shoulder hit against the cold asphalt. Sitting up, I rubbed it. It was time to give up. My chest hurt and I could barely breathe. My legs were heavy and unstable as I picked myself off the ground. Looking up, I was surprised to see that Hue was hovering above me. Moving around for a bit before coming closer and bumping his head against mine. I reached out to grab him, but he quickly moved out of reach.

"Are you saying goodbye?" He flew around me and pushed against my back like he did at the apartment. "Or are you leading me somewhere?"

He flew back in front of me and moved ahead a bit. I took a few steps forward and Hue moved forward too. "Alright, I'll follow you."

I now walked behind Hue as he led me out of the city. Without having to run, I could look around better to see where we were. We had made it to the edge of Goldsboro. There were far fewer papers flying out here, most likely strays carried by the wind. We passed old and abandoned buildings that I recognized. This was the same road I walked the night before. Hue could've been taking me to the warehouse, could he? How does he even know where it is?

Each block we cover brought us closer and closer to the warehouse. What would happen if he did lead me there? I doubted that I would be welcomed. Most of them seemed nice enough, but it was blatantly clear that Seth didn't want me around. To be frank, I wasn't fond of him either. If Hue was leading me to the warehouse, maybe it would be empty tonight. After all, they did spread around the flyers. They could be trying to lay low now.

The warehouse was not the same dark eerie building as before. At least eight large white vans were parked outside of the fencing. It looked like some kind of raid. I quickly hid behind the nearest building. Dozens of dark grey uniformed people moved to surround the warehouse. Following a short distance behind were black robed Enforcers.

A group of five of them stood in the courtyard of the warehouse. Each of them was holding large guns, pointing them a the people laying on the ground before them. I was sure that they were the Awakened, but I was too far away to tell exactly which of them was on the ground.

Smoke rose from the warehouse as Enforcers with flamethrowers began to incinerate the building. There was shouting while the people on the ground were dragged to their feet. They were being led to one of the vans when one of them go free and began running toward the building. A shot rang out through the quiet night and the person fell to the ground. The shouting got louder as the other tried to fight back too. I looked away as more gunfire erupted. When it was silent again, I looked back to see the Enforcers filed into the white vans, leaving the unmoved bodies on the ground.

Together, the vans drove off and the warehouse was left to burn. Bright white flames crept through the boarded and broken windows. A low grown echoed through the air as the roof began to sag. The cracking fire spread over everything, lighting even the trash that surrounded the building.

There was no reason to stay. Everything was gone. The Enforcement had taken down them out because they had tried to start a revolution. If I wasn't careful, my life would be in danger too. I looked up but saw that Hue was no longer around. I had lost him. I wanted to call out, but there was no way I could after seeing what happened. Stepping out, I looked around and spotted him flying over the fence of the warehouse. He dove down into an open window and entered the burning building.

I checked to make sure that the vans were out of sight before rushing across the street. The Enforcers had cut several holes in the fence, so I didn't have to go to the back, but the air was too hit this close to the fire. It hurt to breathe and the smoke was stinging my eyes. There was no way I could go inside the warehouse, even if I wanted too. Whatever Hue was after, he had a better chance of getting it than me. If he came out at all.

Every breath I took burned my lungs. The fire was quickly spreading over the building and across the lot, carried by the grass growing through the heavily cracked and broken concrete. A barrel on the far side of the lot exploded, sending metal and flames everywhere. The ground shook as part of the warehouse roof collapsed, sending put thousands of embers into the sky.

"Hue!" I called out.

It was too dangerous to wait any longer, at least not this close. I left the lot and when to stand in the street, but out here I felt too exposed. As if the Enforcement could come back at any moment to kill me too. Whatever Hue wanted me to see was more than gone now. I just hoped he wasn't gone with it.

"Hue!" I called out again. I waited, hoping that he would back unharmed. Minutes ticked by slowly as the fire crippled the building.

The fire was so bright that I didn't see him until he was already upon me. Hue flew down toward. Not taking any chances, I pulled him in my arms and quickly moved away from the burning warehouse. I managed to carry Hue about a block away before he started struggling in my arms. I only stopped when I heard something hit the ground. It had flown from Hue's mouth. I hadn't noticed that he was carrying something in his mouth.

The small dark box lay sideways on the ground. While I was distracted, Hue escaped from my arms and flew in a circle over the box. I knelt down and picked it up. There wasn't anything interesting about the box. It was made of dark plastic and had a metal latch on it. The latch was hot, but I managed to open it up. Inside was a small cloth.

Blue. It was blue. Another color.

I looked up at Hue, who was hovering close to my hands. This is what he was after. I held out the cloth to him and he touched his nose to it. The blue vanished from the cloth, leaving it a light gray, and transferred onto Hue. A bright blue spot appeared on the front section of his back, taking over half the space the red one once covered.

Like last time, Hue began to grow. He didn't move as his body stretched and morphed. His fins grew longer and thickened as tiny black claws began to sprout at the ends of them. His mouth open and closed as thin needle-like teeth grew in. His body grew twice its size while stretching further in length. The whisker-like feelers on the side of his mouth grey until they reached halfway down his body. The base of his tail stretched out to the point that it was a third the length of his body.

Once it was over Hue looked like a monstrous version of his former self. What were these colors doing to him? Maybe there was a reason they had been taken away. The could have been doing the same thing to people too. Turning them into monsters. Maybe that was why the Enforcers look the way they do.

They could have attacked the warehouse because they found out Seth and his group had been protecting the blue cloth. For all they know, for all I know, colors could be dangerous to us. No matter what Zoe had said about the world being a better place with color, there is no way to know for sure.

I did not have much time to dwell on it. The ground began to shake and break apart. Chunks of roads exploded upward as something bright blue pushed its way out. From what I could tell, it was a tree. It grew several stores high in an instant. Bright leaves fluttered downward. Reaching out, I caught one. The leaf was larger than my hand and had a soft underside. Its color was the same as the bark of the tree and Hue's new stop. It seemed to glow in the night.

The shaking grew stronger as more trees were forced up from the ground. Some broke through buildings, tearing off roofs and splitting through walls. Panicked, I tried to run, but I was trapped, surrounded by growing roots that tore through the ground around me. One caught my leg and pulled me to the ground. I tried to stand, but another tree emerged from under me, carrying with it skyward. It rocked and turned as it formed, throwing me from its branches. I could see nothing but blue leaves as I fell.

My eyes flew open at the sound of my alarm clock blaring in my ears. I was back in my apartment. Sunlight came through the blinds of the kitchen window. Looking down, I saw a newly formed Hue s lying over my abdomen. The red and blue spots and grown with his body. Realizing that I was awake, he turned his head to me. I could feel the claws of his fins gripping through the sheets as he pulled himself forward. His elongated tail thumped against the bed when he nudged his head against my chin.

"Good morning, Hue," I said as I patted his back. He may look different, but inside he was still my friend. Though he was much heavier now.

Hue lifted into the air as I sat up. After going into the kitchen, I set Hue out a plate of food and refilled his water bowl. As he ate, I opened up the kitchen window. Schools of bright red fish weaved the city that was now covered in vibrant blue trees. They had grown out of and around every building in Goldsboro. Their leaves covered the street and sidewalks. It was beautiful if not a little jarring.

The continuous ringing of my alarm clock reminded me that I had to get to work. Last night's events were still fresh in my mind. I needed to do my best to act as normal as possible so I wouldn't get targeted as well. After a quick breakfast and a shower, I headed off to work. Hue tried to leave with me, but he wasn't as persistent as last night.

The air was still cold from the night before. Leaves crunched underfoot as I make my way to the train station. The ground is uneven from the tree roots breaking through it, making me stumble several times along the way. Above, more fish than before flew through the city. The smaller ones seemed content with hanging around the tree branches. At least the fish liked the trees.

The train station was more crowded than normal. There were stationed screens everywhere informing people about alternative routes to places and which stations were no longer in service. Apparently, the trees probably destroyed a lot of the other stations and the tunnels connecting them. Even my usual route was going to take half an hour long just to cover the extra stops and the difference track used.

What made it worse were the dozens of Enforcers stood, lined against the station's walls. They all stood like statues as their faceless forms watched everyone as they passed through the station. Dotted throughout the crowd were people looked confused and scared. One of them, a young man, went up to one of the Enforcers. Even though he spoke at a normal tone, his voice easily rose above the marching of footsteps through the quiet building. He had just managed to ask what was had happened during the night before he was suddenly silenced.

I kept my eyes forward and continued to move through the crowd. Someone screamed in shock. I barely managed to keep from shouting myself when I felt an Enforcer rush past me to get to her. I had to step over a body to enter my train.

There were a lot more awakened around the city. Mostly like caused by the trees sprouting up last night These people didn't know how much danger they were in if they showed even the slightest hint of being different. I wanted to help them, but it was too much of a risk. After seeing what they did to the warehouse last night, I knew there was no hiding from them. My only chance was to continue to go to work as normal. It was the only thing I could do to stay alive.

The Uni-Cell office was also crawling with Enforcers. The tall figures moved through the halls with unnatural quickness. As soon as I sat down at my desk, one leaned over the wall of my cubicle, watching me as I logged into my computer. A stack of files was already waiting on my desk. I immediately got to work typing in every letter, number, and symbol into the computer. It was all mindless nonsense that meant less than nothing, but it kept me busy. It gave me a way to blend into the crowd.

The Enforcers continue to silently move around the cubicles, watching us. No one makes a sound. The minutes moved by at an incredibly slow pace. The constant tapping of dozens of keyboards doesn't help the unease in the air. I move on to a new folder to work through and find a torn paper with panicked writing on it. 'What are these things. Why isn't anyone afraid of them?' I crumbled up the paper and threw it in the trash.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as an Enforcer once again leaned over the wall of my cubicle. I remained focused on the computer screen, even as it reached a long, thin arm down into the trash can at my side. It pulled at the paper and held it up to its face. It breathed in twice. Both were long slow breaths as it smelled the paper.

The short wall shook as the Enforcer quickly pushed off of it. There was a crash on the other side of the room. It was followed by a scream and footsteps. Whoever it was had not gotten far. The entire incident only lasted a few seconds, before the office returned to silence. Reaching to the side, I pushed the crumbled paper off my desk and back into the trash can.


	6. Chapter 6

It was an hour to lunch when I decided to the bathroom for a break from the oppressive gaze of the Enforcers. As I walked from my desk, I realized that there were quite a few cubicles that were empty. At least half of them had walls or desks that were broken and stained with grey splatters. Why hadn't they left yet? By now anyone who was awakened had been killed or knew to keep on working. What were they after? This was so suffocating. Was that their plan, keep putting pressure on us until we broke and slipped up?

Dark puddles covered the floor of the hallways. It slid through the gaps in the tile and stained the lower portions of the walls. I tried not to look too closely at the pieces that had been left bleeding on the cold tile. Thankfully, the bathroom was clear of any signs of Enforcers or their work. I leaned against the sink and sighed. I could do this. I had to do this. I didn't have a choice. Not if I wanted to live. But how long would this last? I couldn't keep this up forever.

A sharp inhale caught my attention. It was followed by a sob. Someone else was hiding out in here. I didn't say anything to them, there was nothing I could do to help. I washed my face with some cold water and went to back into the hallway. The moment I stepped out of the bathroom something crashed against my side. I tried to push them off me, terrified that it was an Enforcer, instead, it was just someone else that worked here.

He was shorter than me, had short dark hair and pale eyes. I could tell just by looking at him that he was awakened. It was in the eyes. Awakened people had more life and emotion in them. In this man’s it was more fear than anything else. He stood and pulled me to my feet. Heavy thumping came from around the corner of the hallway. The man visibly panicked and began running down the hallway. I don’t know why but he pulling me with him. The stranger led me to the main hall and up a flight of stairs. Dark grey pools dripped down the steps, making them slick.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked once we had stopped. He has managed to pull me two floors up with him. "We aren't allowed up here."

"We have to find somewhere to hide. Maybe- maybe find a way out of here," He said. Panic was in full force in his voice. He was breathing heavily as he whipped his head around looking for any encroaching Enforcers coming down the hallways.

I looked down the stairs to see an Enforcer making its way up to us. It didn't take the steps normally, instead of crawling over the sides and railing on all fours, like some kind of long-legged insect. It moved fast, weaving between each flight of stairs, after us. It kept its hooded faces staring up at us, not so much as glancing down to make sure it wouldn’t misstep. Not that it needed to, each movement was quick and precise, never taking the slightest uneven movement.

Also seeing the Enforcer, the man rushed to the nearest door down the hall ahead of us. He opened to door so fast that he nearly fell over, causing me to almost run into him. The wall shook from the force of him slamming the door shut. The locked clicked, sealing us inside the empty conference room. Moments later, the Enforcer threw itself against it. I could hear the interior wood of the door beginning to splinter from the first hit alone. The door would not last long.

"An Enforcer is after you?" I asked through gritted teeth. "Why did you bring me with you? Who are you?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry. I panicked," he said shakily "One of them caught me trying to sneak out of the building and chased after me. What do we do?"

"I don't know. We’re trapped in here. Maybe we can find a place hide."

"There's another door at the back corner of the room," the man said pointing. He was right, there was another door on the opposite end of the room, near the corner. The majority of the conference room was taken up by a large mid-grey table that had eight large, black plush rolling chairs sitting around it.

We crossed the large room and pulled open the door. It led to nothing more than a supply closet. It was filled with more rolling chairs. To the right side was a metal shelf with papers and pens on it. There was a noise at the other door that sounded like angry shouting moments before the slamming had stopped. There was a soft click and the door handle began to turn. We pushed into the closet and shuffled towards the back. The darkness and cramped space made it hard, but we managed to find room against the back wall to kneel down at.

We heard multiple footsteps enter the room. They sounded calm, unaffected by the Enforcer that had been by the door moments before. Had it been one of these people that had shouted at it? I heard the wheels of the chairs roll over the floor as whoever was there, they were getting ready for a meeting. We were on a higher floor, it could not have been anyone else other than our supervisors. The people who ran my department and others. I had never seen anyone outside of the people who worked in my department before.

"I have asked you all here because I have an issue with these things that you have roaming around my office. They are making a complete mess of the place. Not to mention killing my employees," one of them said. A man telling by his voice.

"The Enforcers are merely culling those who are at risk of disrupting your business here," another man said. He sounded much older than the first voice and spoke in a slow breathy tone. "As for the mess, these things can easily be cleaned up."

"They are a bother now, but this is far better than having to deal with an uprising." A third on said. This one sounded uninterested in even his own words. “Better to have a few messy hallways than an all-out revolution. Trust us, those are much harder to clean up afterward.

"Speaking of which, I thought that you said those people were taken care of," the first one said angrily.

"They have been, but another group like theirs could just as easily come up. Especially with these trees covering the city," the fourth one said. This one had a higher tone of voice. It almost hurt to listen to.

“These colors, as well as containing energy, have to ability to awaken the minds of your workers, causing them to think like would if they were real humans,” the bored one stated.

"That is another thing I wanted to discuss with you three," the first man said. "You all have told me that the fish flying around my city was a fluke. You said that taking care of those people at the warehouse would return things to how they should be, but instead, they have only gotten worse."

"Trust us, we've noticed," The squeaky one said. Amusement lining his voice.

"The fact of the matter is that there must be something color, and the energy within it, anchored to this country by something that was not within the warehouse," the second, monotoned voiced man said. "To have everything returned to the way you want it, this thing, whatever it may be, must be found and destroyed. If not, this operation you have going on with fall to pieces and this country along with."

"But as long as you keep control of your workers and let the enforcers do their job, we won't have a problem, will you," the squeaky man said.

My co-worker beside me stood and began to move toward the front of the closet. I shrunk back further into the corner behind the chairs as he reached out and slowly turned the door handle. He only opened it a crack, letting in a sliver of light inside the small room. He looked out at the meeting as they continued to speak.

"My factories are able to produce new people by the hundreds. I have never had a problem with filling in empty spaces. However, after having these trees sprouting up all over the country, destroying the roads, most of my train systems, my factories are nearly completely unusable. That is not to mention that I am unable to contact or access a single one of them," the first man paused something was slammed down. "I have over fifty reports of factories that have been completely obliterated."

"Just have the trees cut down," the bored man said dismissively.

"Do you think that I haven't had my workers try that? There is nothing on hand that is strong enough or accessible that is able to cut them down. And have anything shipped in nearly impossible with roads ruined by the trees."

"Then build more factories," the squeaky-voiced man said, equally apathetic to the point of almost mirroring the other.

"That would take far too long on with conditions. In that time an uprising could already be in progress. That is not to mention that I would still have the same problem with transporting workers and equipment to deal with both situations. How am I supposed to fully drain this country of energy if I can even drive down the street?"

"The solution is simple," the second man said, his tone never wavering. "Find what or who is causing this disruption and destroyed it. Once it is dealt with, all shall return to what it had been. Consider it another task in your quest of becoming one of us. An Overseer does not panic at a slight hindrance such as this. Countries are not typically this easy to gain control of after all. A little pushback is not uncommon."

"Yes, fine. I will find a way to handle this."

"I hope you will. I would have hated to waste all this time on you for this task to end up as an utter failure," the monotoned man said. There was the sound of the chairs rolling over the floor in unison. It was followed by footsteps and after a brief moment a door opening, and a loud thud.

"What is that thing doing back here? I told it to leave," the first man said angrily.

The closet door quickly closed moments before something slammed itself against it. My co-worker held onto the handle as hard as he could, but the Enforcer was too strong and ripped the door free. The hinges broke off and clattered to the ground. One of the Enforcer's large hands gripped around my co-worker's head and pulled him out, onto the floor of the conference room. A bald man in a black suit stared down at him with mix annoyance and disgust.

"What are you doing here?"

"Please, help me. I'll go back to work, just don't let it kill me." As he begged for his life, the Enforcer moved to stand over him. The worker scrambled to his feet and grabbed onto the man in the suit, who in turn quickly shoved him off. There was a rip as the worker tore off a piece of the man's suit coat.

"Disgusting creature," the black-suited man said as he looked over his ruined jacket. He turned to the Enforcer. "Would you just get rid of it."

The Enforcer's booted foot gently lifted and was set down on the worker's head. He struggled to push the foot off the side his cheek as the Enforcer put more and more pressure on him. I turned away and closed my eyes as a sickening wet crunch filled the air. I kept still, afraid that if I moved that they would hear me.

"Revolving," the man said. "Take it down to the basement with the others. At the very least they will be remade into something useful soon enough. Perhaps this time it'll be made into a proper worker."

Is that all we were, things forced to work endlessly for a reason we don't even know? Tools to be thrown away as soon as we've become defective? What were we? What are we made from? He said that we come from factories? I don't know much about the world, or anything at all to be honest, but I knew that living things, people, weren't made in factories. That isn't how life works.

No, you can't remake a living creature into something else. We weren’t metal or plastic. People can't be melted down and made into something new. But if we aren't really people, then maybe? What were we then? One of the other men said that we weren’t real humans. Did that mean that we were just some artificial knockoff? Thinking about it made me sick to my stomach.

I stayed there for several minutes, even after I heard the body being dragged away and the man leaving. The door had been pushed closed, leaving me in complete darkness. I was too scared to move, too confused to think of anything to do. What could I possibly do anyway? That man clearly had a role in was going on in the city. He commanded the Enforcer, he owns factories that make us, a workforce that operates within his building. Was this why the awakened group wanted people to think for themselves so badly? So that they would no longer have to be pawns for these four men?

Overseers is what they called themselves. Did that mean they ran Uni-cell? They said that they were taking control of this entire country. So that meant that they had control over the Enforcement too. That could mean that everywhere is going to be like this. There was nowhere to run. Fighting back was obviously never an option either. The only thing that will keep me safe is to act like a mindless worker like everyone else. But I had to get back to my desk first.

Slowly, while being as quiet as I possibly I could, I stood up and moved to the front of the closet. It was so dark that I had to move slowly through the cramped space. Once I made it to the door, I put my ear against it and listened. I heard nothing. I turned the handle slowly and opened the closet door. The conference room was empty with nothing out of place but the long, dark smear stain on the floor. I walked around it, flinching when my foot caught on something that clicked together under my shoe. They were teeth. A few had been sent across the room to the opposite side of the table. Grey blood had dried on them.

I kept walking until I accidentally kicked something towards the front of the room. It sounded like metal as it struck the wall. I paused and listened but it was still silent. I moved forward and looked at the small object. It was a key. A yellow key. The thought shifted. Gold, not yellow. A gold key lay on the floor. It must have come from the man in the black suit when my co-worker ripped his jacket.

I picked it up and looked it over. What should I do with it? If I gave it to Hue then it would most likely morph his body further. Who knows what would happen to the city. The blue trees caused a lot of damage. There was no telling what would happen next. On the other hand, whatever those Overseer men where doing was hindered by both the trees and the fish. They said that color has an energy attached to it and whatever I have been doing is messing up whatever plans they have. So maybe it was worth it? Hue isn't getting hurt when he changed. He even sought out the blue cloth on his own. And the trees haven't done anything too damaging to me or the other workers. Maybe getting this to Hue would be a good thing?

I put the key in my pocket and cracked opened the door. I listened for any footsteps at first, when I didn't hear anything, I peaked out. The hallway was clear. I stepped out and began making my way towards the staircase. It took ever step as quietly as I could manage, but I also couldn’t afford to move too slowly. The longer I took the more likely I could get caught and killed. But thankfully, I was able to make it back to my floor without being found out.

The first enforcer I came across was outside the door to the office room. It watched me as I walked inside and toward my desk. Others did so too as I sat down and began typing. From my peripheral, I could see at least five of them crowding around my desk. I kept working. My hands were shaking, forcing me to concentrate so not to make a mistake. It was difficult not to look over at them, but the thought of so many faceless forms staring me down made restraining myself easy. Eventually, they all wandered off to other parts of the office.

I continued my work, the knowledge of what I heard nagging at my mind. The constant taping of keys wasn't as loud as when I left. More of my co-workers must have been culled while I was gone. It was awful to think that we were all made to be workers by the man in black. Who would possibly think of doing something like that? There must have been people, real people, before us, what happened to them? Was the man in black made in a factory too? Then who made him? If not then where did he come from? There was so much I didn't know. I had lived my entire life know next to nothing about the world around me. Maybe I was better off that way, but I'm different now. I want to know. But with things how they are, how could I?


	7. Chapter 7

The train station wasn't nearly as crowded as it had been this morning. It was clear my office must not have been the only one with Enforcers in it, they must have been culling people all over the city. My train was filled with far fewer people than the tiny fish who had snuck aboard. Given that there was enough room to do so, I sat sideways on the bench and watched as the train moved through the city.

It used to be nothing but giant grey blocks that filled the city. Now, bright blue trees grew over everything while shimmering, red fish flew through Goldsboro. I was interested to know how the city was going to change next. I wouldn't say that I was excited to find out, but I was curious. Especially if it got in the way of any plans those Overseer men had. The trees had made going through the city by most means impossible for the man in the black suit, hopefully, whatever happened next would be just as bothersome for him.

Although, he was right about the roads being destroyed. Walking wouldn’t have been that much of a problem, but it was impossible for any vehicle attempt to cross the city. It wasn’t like there was much traffic going through Goldsboro. It was mostly a few supply trucks that would roll in on occasion. Without them, I doubted the city would be in much trouble for several months. Most of the former stores acted as supply houses anyway.

The sun had nearly finished setting by the time the train made it to my stop. Night had fallen when I had gotten to the door to my apartment building. Hue greeted me once I stepped inside. He moved into my arms so that I could hold him, which wasn't easy given how heavy he had gotten. However, it was nice how affectionate he had become. I refilled his food and water bowls and while he ate, I set on my bed and fiddled with the gold key. It was long, with a circular base and three teeth on the front. There was an engravement on the side that read 'Lucas Hines'. It must have been the name of the man in the black suit.

He was the reason why the country was broken and he wanted to break it further. He had no problem using people for his personal gain and killing them when they lost their use. Therefore, I shouldn’t feel bad for causing some superficial damage to the city. These small remnants of color are delaying his goals but I wanted more than that. With the cloth and my blood, two colors were somehow returned to the world and Hines was already having serious problems. I hoped this one did even more damage, maybe even halting his plot completely.

"Hue," I called out. He flew over and landed next to me on the bed. I held out the key toward him. "Here."

Hue touched his nose to it and the color from the key absorbed into his body, leaving it a cold grey metal. The red and blue sections of the thick stripe on his back moved up as a yellow took its place near the base of his tail. Once again his body grew. His face stretched longer, and the edges of his mouth pull back. His fins grew and thickened until they looked more like clawed hands. He now had short arms and legs to stand on. His tail grew longer and curled next to him. Shoulders and a neck formed as his the fin on his back almost completely disappeared into his body.

When all was done he looked more like a lizard than a fish. Hue stretched out his new limbs and yawned. His teeth clicking when he snapped them shut. He turned his head to look down at his new clawed feet. Shifting on them, he began kneading into my sheets. I reached out and pet his head. In response, Hue leaned into my touch. His scales felt smoother now. I flinched when he began crawling into my lap, his claws digging into my legs.

"Ouch. No, stop. Your tiny claws hurt," I said as I pulled him off of my lap. Thankfully, he hadn't grown too much bigger or I wouldn't have been able to move him.

Hue walked around on the bed as he got a feel for his new body. His legs were long enough to hold his body up, but he mostly dragged his stomach over the sheets. It was more like he was clawing his way over the bed, rather than attempting to walk. I lifted him up and set him on the floor instead. Down there he would have to actually walk. He was slow moving and less than graceful as he began to make his way over the floor. His claws clicked with each step he took. His entire body swayed side to side as he moved. It was cute.

There was a deep boom as the building shook. Scared, Hue lifted off the ground and flew back over too the bed. I tried to stand and see what was happening outside but lost my balance as the building swayed. I could only hear a deep rumbling from outside. Giant shadows passed over my window as I felt the building move as if it was being clumsily lifted up. I stumbled forward to lean against the wall. I needed to knew what was happening. The grown of metal came from all around me.

The building jolted upwards. The force pushing me to the ground. Claws gripped my shirt as Hue held onto my back as if standing wasn't hard enough. Whatever was happening must have been the result of yellow being reintroduced into the world. Just like with the trees, I needed to wait it out. I sat up and pulled Hue into my lap. The apartment swayed for several more minutes, each one becoming less and less defined. By the time the noises outside ceased, the sun had fully set.

I released Hue to fly around the room while I stood up and went to the window. I slid the bottom panel up and looked outside. The first thing I noticed was the massive blue tree roots connecting each surrounding building to each other. The larger ones were near the base of the buildings. The second thing I noticed was that the ground was gone. Each building was held up by large chunks of glowing yellow stones. Compared to the buildings, the rock masses that supported each of the city's buildings didn't seem nearly large enough to do so.

In the darkness of the night, it was impossible to tell how for way the ground was or if it even existed anymore. But there was no way it could have just been wiped out of existence. Having the entire world disappear aside from just the city was had to be impossible. So far, the colors returning to the world has only added things not taken away. The light from the glowing rocks must have just been obstructing my sight. Then again, what did I really know about what its limitations were?

I stepped back from the window and closed it. I called out to Hue and headed out of the apartment. Together, we headed downstairs and out the front door of the apartment. The rock extended quite a few feet out from the base of the building, allowing for plenty of room to walk outside. Fallen blue leaves covered the rocky ground. I didn't stray too far from the entrance. This was all still so strange for me. I never would have expected something like this could happen.

Surprisingly, the base of each building was still leveled with each other for the most part. There were only small variations here and there. I suppose the thick roots connecting the rock masses to each other helped that in a way. It was a good thing that the trees came first. There was no telling what would happen if each city block wasn’t tethered to each other. Small rocks floated up from between the gaps below. They were too far for me to reach, but telling how they were spreading out, they'd be all over the city in no time.

Hue flew up next to me and placed his small hands on my shoulder. He lifted his head as a loud hum sounded throughout the city. A voice rang over the city. "Attention to the person or persons who have caused this deviation; these transgressions will not be tolerated. You are tampering with power far beyond your control or understanding. I know that you are in this city. What happens next is on you, you have forced my hand."

The message ended. It had sounded like the man in the suit, Lucas Hines. What did he mean by forcing his hand? It was clear that he had no idea who I was. So what could he be planning? Maybe it was just an empty threat made to scare me? Either way, it wasn't like I knew where any more colors where to go looking for them. I didn't even know how many there were. I had been lucky so far in finding the key. The blood was just an accident and Hue lead me to the cloth, which could have easily been burned up in the fire. For all I knew, there could be hundreds more. And they may not even be restricted to Goldsboro, there could be remnants of color all over the world.

It was getting cold outside, so Hue and I headed back inside. I believed that Hines would hold true to his threat. I had seen personally how merciless he could be. Pretending to act as a pawn had kelp me safe. It may have gotten me this far, but if Hines was going to hold true to his threat, I doubt it would work much longer. If I am able to find a way to do so, I'll leave Goldsboro. However, Uni-Cell had connections all over the world. There was a very strong chance that Hines would be able to find me if he wanted to.

Back in the apartment, I began thinking of what to do. There were some small parts of the country where Uni-Cell didn't have such a strong grasp on society. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to find out where they were located. I didn't even know how far the nearest city was. I didn’t even know if it was possible to get out of Goldsboro in the first place. There weren’t any roads left in the city, so it was a safe bet that anything other than city blocks had been left down below.

"What should we do Hue?" I asked while walking toward the closet. "We need to go someplace where neither the Enforcement or Hines can get us."

We would possibly need to get further than just a city or two away. Uni-Cell had a lot of power in the surrounding area. The company practically ran the entire country. At best I would have to find a way to get us to one of the few small towns that were still left in the country. At worse, I would have to find a way to leave the country altogether.

While I was changing into my night clothes, Hue flew in front of me with something white in his mouth. Taking it from him, I saw that it was the key from earlier. I held out my hand and he dropped it in my palm. When it met my skin, the key began to twist and lighten. The once metal formed to look like stark white wood. The base was now twisted into a circular loop. The engraving on the side was gone now replaced with three letters. 'Sol' it now said.

I turned over the key in confusion. What was I supposed to do with this? I looked up to see a keyhole glowing on my closet door. Reaching up, I placed the end if the key within it. First, there was a click and a line formed down the center of the door. The key released from the door as the two sides slowly pulled apart, revealing a hexagonal room nearly the same size as my apartment.

The walls of the room were lined with tall black bookcases that reached all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling itself was paneled glass that reached up into a dome shape. Outside the glass showed a vast night sky that was covered with stars. Directly under the center of the dome was a circular table with six chairs around it. Walking closer, I saw that the top looked to be showing a map of a light shade of grey.

It was mostly blank, showing roads and geographical landmarks, but no names or indication of where any cities were located. Over this, there were white grid lines and a single black dot. However, nothing was identified with a name save for a single thing. I reached out and touched the dot. It felt like a computer screen. A blip of white appeared then disappeared from where I touched. The map zoomed in, showing a more detailed layout of the selected area. A white rectangle appeared, on it, the word ‘Goldsboro’ was typed out.

There was an 'i' icon next to the city name. When I touched it a window of text popped up. On it, it gave an overview of my home. What our culture was like, and who we became the way we are today. It tapped the small 'X' next to the window and closed it. I then looked around the room. What was this place? What did it have to do with Hue and yellow returning to the world? What was this all for?

I stepped away from the table and stalked around the room. Where had this place come from? It was far bigger than my closet. It must have expanded into the apartment next to mine. But then, what happened to the resident? I had seen them enough times to know someone lived there. The dome was taller than my ceiling, it had to reach the floor above me, but what about the several above that? Even in the furthest corner of the room, I couldn't see any signs of the building that surrounded the apartment. I couldn't the fish that flew through the city or the trees that grew everywhere. What was going on?

I stepped outside of the room and pulled the doors closed. The line between them disappeared as the door returned to one. Grabbing the handle, I pulled open the door like normal. Inside, was my closet. Uniforms hung from the rack like always and my spare shoes sat on the floor. Closing it, I tried the white key again. Like before, the door split in two and revealed the larger room. Hue quickly flew out of it, not appreciating that I had left him in there. To be honest, I hadn't notice.

I closed the doors and reopened my closet. Next, I moved to my front door and tried the key there. It worked just as it did with the closet door. This was perfect. Going to my bedside table, I pulled out the poster and note I found the train. I also grabbed the self-help book and took them into the room. I set them all on the table. It felt safer having than having them in my draw. It was easier to pretend that I wasn't awakened without proof of the opposite.


	8. Chapter 8

When I woke up the next morning, I debated whether to go to work or not. After the announcement last night it was probably best not to miss work. Or maybe it was better if I did. There was no telling what Hines had planned. Going to the office might be walking into a trap. Either way, it was dangerous. That was if I could even make it there in the first place.

I stood and went to look out the window. Water droplets covered the glass. Goldsboro sat within a giant mass of clouds. At most I could see the building across the street. The rest were merely looming shadows in the clouds. It made the city feel so much different than how it did last night. Instead of seeing the trees and fish, I could only make out large blotches of blue with specks of red weaving in and out of sight. The wind was stronger and cooler than normal. I could hear it shake the trees near my window.

I gazed down at the thick roots that connect my block to the one next to it. They looked plenty large enough for me to be able to walk across them. The trains definitely weren't functioning anymore and I was not up for trekking on roots all the way across the city. I guess that meant that the decision was made for me. Not being able to physically go to the office because the city blocks were levitating in the cloud line was a perfect excuse for missing work.

At the apartment building across the street, the front door opened. Several people walked out and looked around themselves. One of them ventured toward the edge and peered down at the glowing mountain that held up the ground they stood on. Others joined them and after a few minutes someone ventured out on one of the connecting roots. Soon more and more people spilled out of the surrounding building onto the streets.

Had this many people become awakened? If they were like me then these people had needed something to break them out of the trance they lived in. It was clear that the trees had caused a lot of people to break out of the trance. It was easy to assume that something like the whole city getting lifted into the sky would awaken even more people.

I decided I’d go out and explore around too. I may not be able to make it all the way across town to work, but I could probably make it down a few blocks or so. And it wasn’t like I would be the only one out there either.

I changed into my work uniform and grabbed and jacket from the back end of the closet, before heading downstairs with Hue at my side. The air was colder than I anticipated. The wind was strong, so I had to zip my jacket up to keep it from hitting against me. Hue gripped into my back so he didn’t have to fight the wind. At least the extra layer kept me from feeling his claws.

Most of the people had gathered off toward the front side of the block. Even though there were so many of them together, no one talked or even interacted with each other. I guess after living their entire lives without minimal social interactions, suddenly deciding to speak with someone would be a huge step. There was already a lot to deal with. When I came out of the haze the world was still grey and unchanged. I can’t imagine what it is like to wake up and see all this while also coming to terms with everything else.

I started off by walking to the left corner. I looked, I was only able to see between the roots were the blurred shine of the yellow rocks underneath us. I stepped off the sidewalk and onto a nearby root bridge. My chest tightened as I slowly made my way out over the gap.

I tried as best as I could to keep my eyes on the twisting root underfoot, even honing in on each turn and line in the wood. However, my eyes were continuously drawn over the edge. There was no telling how far down it reached. Fifty-feet? One hundred? Two hundred? A few thousand? It was horrifying to think that just one misstep could send me falling to my death. I had never been afraid of heights before. I had never been in a high place with a risk of falling, so there was no reason to think I would have such a phobia. But now, I think I was developing one.

When I made across to the block I made sure to keep away from the edge. More and more people were spilling out onto the streets and unlike before, there wasn't enough room to accommodate them. I doubt people would start pushing and shoving to get a view of the massive drop below us, but I wanted to be out of range in case any accidents were to happen. I slipped into an alley and looked around.

Honestly, I had no idea what to do with myself. I wanted to explore, but I was a bit unnerved about having to cross over the roots again. It was exciting, but also terrifying. Other people didn't seem to have as big as a problem with it as I did, some of them even climbing on lower hanging trees. Some people were fearless like that. They pulled at the tree’s branches and plucked leaves down to examine the bright blue color. There was a low tree further down the alley, its trunk jutting out from the rock slightly under the concrete foundation and stretching halfway up the building.

A strong wind blew through the narrow alley, knocking a few leaves from the tree. They spun as the fluttered down from the branches. The wind had also shaken a few fish from their hiding places in the trees. Their red glow erupted from around the trees for a few moments before they quickly retreated back into hiding. For a brief moment, when the fish were out of their hiding spots and their red glow and the blue from the trees mixed, I thought I saw something between the two colors. But, it was too fast for me to be sure.

If I hadn’t been seeing things, then there had been a new color there. Even it if was for a brief moment. Colors made as a byproduct of two other colors mixed together. The thought had never occurred to me. If something like that were possible them that would be a perfect way to add more colors to the world. That was only if I would be able to figure out how to accomplish something like that.

"We're all free!" someone shouted from one of the crowds. It turned back toward the street as a chorus of cheers rang out.

"We can finally live like real people," Another shouted.

"What should we do?"

"Whatever we want."

"What about those tall guys who've been killing people?"

"We outnumber them now, we can fight back."

“What do you mean? Who is going to stop us from doing what we want?”

Their words soon became mixed into an endless noise of voices and the wind. It was impossible for me to keep track of what was being said, so I didn’t bother. Soon enough, either everyone would know to keep clear of the Enforcement or they would try to get rid of them. Whatever happened was up to them. All I really wanted was to keep Jucas Hines from getting what he wanted from these people.

Ducking under the tree, I made my way further down the alley, deciding to keep my distance from everyone else. I didn’t know what it was, but being around so many people made me uneasy, I walked in the darkness between the buildings, with only the light from overhanging trees lighting my way. All around me I could hear the voices of people. It carried through the city, in the wind and bounced off the concrete walls. Goldsboro had never had so much sound within it. Aside from thunderstorms, that is. I had no idea that people’s voices could carry so far.

While I walked, I tried to think of possible ways to create another color. To start, I should try to recreate what I saw with the fish and the tree. However, getting a fish would be tricky. They always did their best to keep away from people. Instead, I would have to try it with a rock. I would probably have to get a fish, either way, to get as many colors as I needed.

But before I could even begin testing my theory, I needed to get someplace where I had plenty of room to test it out. Things always go chaotic when a new color appeared. The last thing I wanted was to be squeezed in between buildings or people. There was plenty of open space in the factory district of the city. I might as well head out that way. There were bound to be fewer people around too.

I stepped out of the alley to see a wall of people. Like the other group, they were shouting amongst each other as well. From what I could make out through the noise, they were trying to decide what to do with themselves. Some wanted to go to the Uni-Cell headquarters and confront the people responsible for the killings. The ones who were the most in favor of this idea appeared to have been more recently awakened. The people who had personally seen what the Enforcers would do to people were far more hesitant.

“You don’t understand. I’ve seen what they can do to a person. Even with all of us together, I doubt we will have any chance against them. We are better off leaving the city,” One of them protested.

“They’re right. Those things would kill us all in minutes.” Another said. “Besides, didn’t any of you hear what that man said last night. Someone made all this happen.”

“That’s impossible. There is no way one person or even a group of people can cause all of this to happen.”

“Then how do you explain it?”

“It doesn’t matter. Either way, we are free and if we want to keep that freedom need to make sure that the people in charge know that we aren’t their pawns anymore. We need to send them a message of liberation.”

I moved on to the edge of the block. After taking a deep breath, I began to slowly make my way across it. I agreed that trying to take in the Enforcement was a bad idea, but who was I to tell them otherwise. Whatever those people were planning to do, it was none of my concern. I was only responsible for myself and Hue. I just wanted to cause trouble for Hines for what he has done to everyone, not start a revolution. Though, I suppose a revolution would also be a considerable thorn in his side as well.

What would a revolution mean for the city anyway? Our society ran with business and productivity in mind. It has for centuries. The only reason people have a problem with it now is that Hines, and by extension Uni-Cell, took that too far. Either way, the company was a giant and had the power to do whatever it wanted. Even if everyone in the city decided to storm the headquarters and seize power from Hines, who's to say the next person in charge won’t take over with the same ideology.

Those men, the Overseers, that he was talking to sounded like they had large plans of their own. They also made it seem like they can some control over Hines as well. They wanted to drain the country of energy, but for what purpose? Hines had said that I was dealing with a power I couldn’t understand. Do the colors have something to do with that power? Maybe it was the power? After all, the city has been getting more and more altered with each new color. Hines did say that his factories were ruined. So the changes aren’t just restricted to Goldsboro.

If the power was connected to the whole country, then there was no reason not to believe that everywhere was being affected, not just in this area. I wondered how people in other cities were reacting. Were there awakened in other cities too? Did they have to deal with the Enforcement? If so, then who commanded the Enforcers there? I had so many questions and so few answers.

I had crossed through four more blocks and made it to the part of the city that was once a shopping area. Back when Uni-Cell took full control of the area most of the shops were converted into small storage facilities for food. It was here that I came across a group of people that were entering a building through a broken window.

The glass crunched under their feet as people entered and exited the building. The ones who were leaving were carrying boxes stacked clear over their heads. Each box was labeled as some kind of food. These people were stealing. Hue shifted on my back as I walked closer to the large broken window. I watched as the group stripped the building clean.

"You better grab some too," someone said as they walked out. "With the city how it is, who knows how long the food will last."

I hadn't thought of that. There was no way for food shipments to reach the city. The city could be up here forever as far as I knew. Preparing for the worst was a good idea. Instead of joining the group that was here and getting what was left in the store, I headed down a few blocks to get to a building that hadn't been broken into yet. The plain text on the windows confirmed that the building held food.

I found a good sized rock that was floating by and threw it at the glass door. Lucky, the rock was able to be thrown and didn't just float gently to the door. Reaching through the broken glass, I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Before me, in the dim room were racks and racks of boxes filled with canned food. I turned back to the door and took the white key from my pocket. A glowing why keyhole appeared on the door when I lifted the key took it. A line formed down the middle and the door slid open revealing the empty library.

I returned the key to my pocket and walked up to the nearest shelf. Rice. A staple in Goldsboro, but it far better than starving. I took the box and brought it into the library. I set it in front of the bookshelf that was closest to the door. I had once considered how much food I ate on a daily bases and no idea how much food I would need to stock up on. I guess I didn’t have an actual time limit to adhere too.

How much food I took was up to me as long as no one else showed up. I wasn’t against sharing any of it. I’d just rather not have to explain the room that was appearing out of nowhere. Not that I knew how to explain it in the first place. With everything that has been going on the last few days, maybe the empty library and the key were necessarily the strangest things around.

Anyway, I mentally prepared myself for the long day ahead of me. There were a lot of boxes to unload here, and afterward, I would have to find a place with extra clothing and other necessities. I had the luxury of having a portable storeroom and I was well intent on using it. I would also have to get things for Hue as well. Testing out my theory about mixing colors would have to wait until tomorrow at the soonest.

Each change caused by a new color added has become more and more intense. I needed to be prepared for whatever might happen. On the off chance that Hines was right, then who knew what I could have been doing to this country. On the other hand, it was the Overseers fault that our country was without color in the first place. I had heard them admit it.

Or maybe that was just my way of justifying what I was doing. I had no idea how all of this was going to end. I hoped everything would end up being put back to how it was before the colors had been taken. But I didn’t even know what a world like that was like. I regretted not asking more about how the world used to be when Zoe and the others were still around.


	9. Chapter 9

Bagged rice. Canned meat. Bottled water. Bread loaves. Cooking pots. Tubes of toothpaste. Fish food. First aid materials. Metal utensils. Cleaning soap and hand soap. Blankets. I even managed to find a place that held pillows. I took whatever I could find. By the time I was done I was more the certain I had gone overboard. I had loaded up on things as if the world was nearing its end. Who knows, maybe it was.

Once I had halfway placed everything I had gotten on the shelves, I still had plenty of room in the library for anything else I wanted. But I was done for the day. Not only had I worn myself out, I wasn’t used to physical labor, but by the time I had finished several hours had passed. After feeding Hue and myself, I had to eat a room temperature can of meat, we continued our way out toward the warehouse area.

I continued to keep my distance people for the most part. Even this far out of the city’s center there still plenty of people around. Some were gathering food, others rallying people to storm the Uni-Cell building and a few were simply out to explore the city. There were so many people walking around that it was hard to completely avoid everyone. I did cross path with people from time to time. But unless they wanted to recruit me for their mob, anyone I came across kept to themselves.

Eventually, it had begun to rain throughout the city. Even though he was once a fish, Hue didn’t seem to care for the rain, so I let him ride within my jacket. I originally had him at the front of the jacket, but he wiggled himself to my back. He now road on my back underneath my jacket with his head resting on my shoulder. I probably looked strange with a large lump on my back. It didn't help much that Hue was so big now either. He had his tail wrapped around my left side, and his little claws gripped at my back. I had to walk carefully to keep them from scratching against me. It made walking over the bridging tree roots even more nerve-wracking.

After nearly two hours, I finally I reached the warehouse part of the city. The rain had picked up, but at least the wind wasn't as strong. There were more trees around and their leaves nearly blanketed the ground. Reaching down, I took a few of them off the ground. They were soaked from the rain and felt kind of gross in my hands. I didn't know leaves could feel so slimy. Putting them in my picket would just make it wet too, so I had to deal with it for now.

Next, I grabbed a good sized rock that had been floating under a tree. It was dry so I didn't mind shoving it into my jacket. I didn't want to try mixing the colors just yet. I wanted to find somewhere dry first. Hue was likely going to change again too and I didn't want that to happen while he was hiding inside my jacket.

The leaves crunched and slipped under my feet as I walked through the empty lots. There was so much more space out here to walk around. Being around so many people all at once was rather suffocating. Thankfully, everyone stayed close to the center of the city.

I was able to find an empty storage building, that was far smaller than a warehouse, without much trouble. I had to break a window to get in but the wind and rain weren't bad enough that it sucked out the warmth out of the place. The inside was dark and filled with empty metal shelves. I placed the leaves and rock I'd used to break in with on a shelf that was far away from the broken window. I unzipped my jacket and let Hue out. He flew up and on the highest shelf before stretching his legs.

I took one of the leaves and the rock and held them together. The glow from both of them met, creating a different color than what I had seen from the fish, though one that I could not name. I waited expecting something some to happen. The ground to start shaking. The world began to twist. But there was nothing. I didn't work. I tried moving further into the building, back where it was darker and the glowing shined brighter. Still nothing.

Sighing, I dropped both the leaves and the rock. The leaves flopped wetly to the floor, while the rock floated where I released it. Maybe creating color wasn't an option. Maybe I had to find them like I had done the others. But where should I look then? I had found the ring by accident alone. What was the change that was going to happen? The cloth, however, was found my Hue, not me. He had led me all the way across the city to get from a burning building.

I looked back to where he was crawling over the shelf. He was standing on the side, his body facing downwards as he looked over the building. Everything so far had involved him, so I guess there was no harm in seeing if he could find another color.

"Hue," I called. He turned to look at me, before dropping down from the shelf and flying over. He landed on my back and crawled up so that his head was on my right shoulder.

"Do you remember how you found that blue cloth a few days ago?" He blinked at me. Or he just blinked in general. I had no way of telling in he actually understood me. "Do you think you can do that again? Can you find me another color too?"

To my surprise, he actually flew off after listening to me. But instead of going outside like I expected him to do. He went over and grabbed the yellow stone in his mouth and brought it over to me. I took the rock. I guess technology, to him, it was another color. "Thanks, but I meant a new color. One that we haven't seen yet."

He turned so that his back was toward me. The glow from the stone shined on the three sections of color on his back. The yellow light mixed in with the blue and red sections, creating the color I has seen before and a new one. The three sections on Hue's back shrank as two others. One color, orange, appeared between the red and yellow sections. The second one, green, formed under the yellow section.

I let go of the stone as Hue's began to change. His body grew and got longer. His face became long and more reptilian. Short, black horns sprouted from his head. His eyes became grey with thin, black slits for pupils. Four of his teeth grew into long sharp, fangs. Once it was all done Hue looked nothing like the fish he once was. There word for what he was formed in my head. Dragon. Hue was a dragon now. He turned in the air as if he was trying to look at the new sections of color. I smiled as he looked over himself. Hue was definitely more than a fish now. He seemed more aware of himself too.

The sound of rushing water came from outside. It wasn’t the rain. In fact, it had actually stopped raining. The sounds a gotten Hue’s attention as well. Together we went over to the broken window and looked out. A large orange mass swept down from the sky and passed the storehouse. It looked to be orange water of all things. It flowed like a larger river into the city. Branching out into several smaller rivers that weave around the buildings and trees. The river lite up the dim sky. It was amazing to see.

I stepped out of the building and watched as the glow of the river shined off of the windows of buildings. More lights began to appear throughout the city. These were green. They mostly sprouted out over buildings. Some of them were only small glints in the distance that quickly became mixed in with the other lights of the city. Others, however, were large and bright enough to stay noticeable.

These green lights spread further out over the city. As the lights moved closer, I began to hear something that sounded like it was breaking out from concrete. Eventually, I was able to see what was causing the sound. The new lights were caused by bright green crystals that were exploding out from the sides of buildings. I returned back inside as the wave of emerging crystals swept over the building. The smallest ones were bigger than me, while the largest of them shout out of one warehouse and stretched clear over the separated blocks to another. As soon as the wave came, it passed leaving everything bathed in a strange mixture of colored lights.

The crystals shined like polished glass. They were transparent, yet also reflected everything around them like strange mirrors. When I looked in one, I saw not only myself but everything behind me. What caught my attention was a figure moving up behind me. Turning, I saw a man in worn clothing coming up behind me. His clothing was worn and ragged. His was heavily bandaged from his face to his legs and arms. From the few parts of him that weren't covered in bandages and clothing, I could see that his skin was scared and looked to be burned in several places. A good portion of his head was covered in these bandages as well.

“It’s you,” the man said as he walked closer toward me. His footsteps were uneven. He was limping. He held his right arm close to his body. Grey stains, his blood, seeped through the bandages on it. His one eye stared through me. “You’re the one bringing color back into the world. You and your ‘creature’ there.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said as moved away from him. Hue flew down and grabbed onto my back. The man stared at Hue with shock and curiosity.

“The others would have been so happy to see all of this.” He looked out over the city. “To see so much color throughout the city. Even in such a chaotic form.”

I said nothing when he turned back to look at me.

“Tell me, are there others like us. With this much going on there must be more awakened in the city.”

“From what I have seen everyone in Goldsboro is awakened now,” I told him.

“Really?” He looked up at the orange river flowing above us. He smiled, but it quickly faded. “That is good. That is a good thing. Everyone is free. People are now free to choose who they want to be now. I just wish, I just wish that they others could have been here to see it too.”

“What others?” I asked. “Who are you talking about?”

He looked at me with confusion for a moment before realization crossed his eye. “I guess you wouldn’t recognize me. We didn’t exactly get a chance to know each other. Though that was more than partly my fault. I’m Seth. I’m not sure if you know, but the others were killed in a raid on the warehouse. I only made it out because the Enforcement thought I burned in the fire.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I wasn’t sure if should tell him that I was there when it happened. He might get upset that I didn’t try to help. “New that something had happened when I saw that the warehouse was burned down, but I had hoped that everyone got out safely. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. There was nothing any of us could have done. The Enforcement went in with the numbers and equipment with the intention to wipe us all out. But thanks to you, whatever their plan was can’t become a reality.” He paused and looked down at his arm. “I suppose the only thing to do now is to prepare for this new world.”

"That would be a good idea. People are raiding the city for food. They are worried that it'll run out since there isn't a way to transport it in anymore. There is also a group gathering people to storm the Uni-cell headquarters. I guess I came out here to get away from it all."

"And to spread more colors." I wasn't sure if it was a question or not, but I stayed quiet.

I couldn't explain it, but in a way, I felt bad for what I had done. Hines was right, I had no idea what kind of power I had been spreading over the city. I had no way of know what would happen to this city or anywhere else. For all I knew, I had led everyone in Goldsboro to eventual starvation. Was this really better? In the end, would it still be worth it? There was no way to tell until it was too late to change anything. No, it was already too late.

"Is something wrong?"

Before I could even consider answering him an explosion sounded in the city. Flashes of red spread up into the sky as smoke rose from the buildings. Another explosion sent a skyscraper crumbling down. I could see the blue of the trees fall with it. White light shined up from the base of the buildings. It flickered like fire. There were white flashed as more explosion ripped through the city. From the sky, white lights shined down from under black forms that flew overhead. As the moved closer, I could hear the roar of their engines. I watched as dark tendrils snaked down from the aircraft.

A familiar buzz rang through the city. The voice was muffled by crackling static, yet still distinguishable. "I bet you think that you have saved this place. That you’ve freed everyone from my control. You are wrong. The only thing you have succeeded in doing is led this world to its destruction. Everyone in this country will die because of what you have done. But I won’t go down so easily. I’ll make sure you suffer for what you have done here.”

The message ended as more airships overtook the skies. There looked to be two types of them. The first type was smaller and explosions followed their path through the sky. The others were much larger hand had dark, shining tendrils that reached to the ground, pulling something back up with it. There were dozens of airships, and they were making their way over the city towards us.

"We need to go." Seth grabbed my arm and began pulling further into the warehouse area. "We need to find shelter. I don't know for sure if it can withstand those explosions, but it's better than staying out in the open."

Hue released my back and flew ahead of us. It was clear that he could have been out of sight in moments, but held back for us. Seth and I weren't able to move very fast. Not only were Seth's injuries were slowing him down, but we could run over the tree roots. We also had to move around the green crystals as well. By the time we had made it a few blocks, the airships were nearly upon us. Looking up, I was barely able to make out their dark shapes. They were the larger ones of the two. Their bright searchlights scanned over the ground.

Through the roar of the engines, I could hear shouting. Far behind us, people came running from the dust that flooded the city. Unlike is, they were running. Shoving against each other to get away from the metal claws that slammed to the ground on top of them. The claws scrapped over the ground, breaking up concrete and tree roots as it gripped onto a portion of the fleeing crowd and lifted them into the air. People struggled and tried to get free. Some succeeded only to fall through the openings in the ground and roots to whatever remained below the city. However far down that may be.

"Come on," Seth shouted above all the noise. "We have to keep going. It isn't much further."

Ignoring the screams and the sound of the airship getting closer, I kept going. We fled for a few blocks until we arrived at a deteriorated warehouse. I followed Seth pushed through a narrow opening between a crumbled wall and what I believed to be steep support beams. The space was small, barely enough room to crawl through. Bits of concrete scraping against my hands and knees. Rebar stuck out every which way. Only the thinnest rays of light shined from behind us, lighting the small tunnel.

“We’re here,” Seth said as the path widened into a small space. The floor was covered in some kind of cloth that Seth shifted to sit on. “We can wait here until they pass.”

“How did you find this place?” I asked as I sat next to him.

“I found this place shortly after the Enforcement attacked.”

Hue flew over and settled onto my lap. His head rested on my leg as he looked around us. The low light allowed me to see around us. There were bottles of water and cans of food laying near the cracked walls. Most of them were empty. We sat on what looked to be a mass of ripped and worn clothing that was used to pad the floor. More intact clothes were set in a pile next to some cans.

We listened as the sound of the aircraft engines grew louder and closer. The ground vibrated from the sound alone. Dust fell from the cracked, low ceiling above us. It seemed solid for now, but there was no way to know how stable this already collapsed building could be. It wasn’t long before a horde of people ran by. Their rampant footsteps kicked up the leaves off the ground outside.

I looked down as Hue shifted in my lap. His little claws gripped my legs before he launched off of my lap and he flew towards the exit. I lunged out to try and stop him, but he was too fast. He was outside before I realized what he was doing. He weaved out into the path of the fleeing group and took up some leaves in his small hands. He looked above him as a bright light shined down on him. I moved to begin making my way toward him.

“Hue, come back here,” I called to him.

I don’t know if he heard me. The ground shook as a metal claw crashed to the ground. Dust and leaves flew into my eyes. I heard screams from outside and the scrapping of the metal over concrete. When I looked up again Hue was gone. I pushed myself forward but was unable to move.

“Stop!” Seth shouted as he pulled on my jacket. “You can’t go out there or you’ll get taken too.”

“But what about Hue? I can’t abandon him,” I shouted back.

“You can’t do anything for him. I’m sorry but he’s gone.”

I stared out at the space where he had been. Blue leaves and grey blood settled into the indent left by the claw. The roar of the aircraft moved away, its roaming searchlight going with it. Soon, all I was able to hear were distant explosions and the rushing river overhead.


	10. Chapter 10

We waited, hiding in that dark dirty hole under the collapsed building, as the sound of destruction continued. I wanted to go out as soon as the airship had passed, but Seth said that there would likely be more passing near us soon. Hue was probably dead anyway. There was no way a person could have survived that wall falling on them, let alone a small thing like him.

This was all my fault. If I had just left everything alone at the beginning, back when he was still alive and flying in my apartment. Now he was gone and I was alone. My eyes hurt from crying. I had never cried before. Not that I could remember. Seth tried to talk to me, but I stayed silent. There was nothing he could say that would help. It was my fault his people had died. It was my fault that Hue had died. And it was my fault that everyone would die. Goldsboro was going to die. Nothing good had come from restoring color to the world. Why couldn't have I just left it alone?

When night fell the smaller airships began dropping more and more bombs on the city. The sound of their impacts never ceased. Occasionally, one would hit close enough to where we were that the broken building shifted. I wondered if it might collapse onto us, but it never did no matter how hard it shook. For hours we sat there and listened to the destruction of our city. We were like trapped vermin with nowhere left to run too.

When the sounds finally did stop it was well into the night. Cold air blew into the small space. The breeze kicked up leaves into the entrance. I couldn't see much from where I sat. I could only see fallen trees and shattered crystals scatter within piles of rubble. A faint orange light covered everything. The light shifted in moved with the flowing river.

I closed my eyes. What could I do now? Hue was gone and I was stuck in a decimated city. I felt in my pocket. I still had the white key. If I managed to find a door I could go to the library and stay there. But then what? The food and water I gathered would only last so long. What would happen once I was out of food and was stick on this floating rock?

I woke up to Seth shaking my shoulder. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep. He was kneeling in front of me and looked as tired as I felt.

"We should get going," he said.

"There's nowhere to go," I told him.

"We need to get an idea of what is going on out there. Maybe we could find food or a better place to hide out. We can leave the city. Go far away from where the airships can't find us."

"The city is floating in the sky. There is nowhere to escape to."

He took a moment before answering. "We should try at the very least."

“You can go if you want to. I’m going to stay here,” I told him.

“Hey,” he said gently “ I know you’re upset, I know what it is like to lose someone you care about but you can’t just stay here, dwelling on the pain. We need to go out and find survivors. Find a place where we have a better chance of survival.”

“What do you expect to find out there?” I asked him.

“I-I don’t know,” he stuttered. His voice was lower and hollow. He looked at the ground in front of us, then out to the exit of our hiding spot. “I don’t know, but I’m tired of hiding in here. Injured and scared like some kind of animal. Before I was burned and bleeding and I thought I was leaning toward death. But now, I can to go out and at least try to something more than hiding myself away.”

“You heard the explosions last night. The only thing left out there is rubble.”

“You might be right, but it isn’t much better in here. Outside there is sunlight, fresh air, and the colors. Besides, who knows how long this place is going to remain standing we need to leave while we can.”

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. Once he sees what it is like outside, then he might leave me alone. Before leaving, Seth grabbed the remainder of his supplies. It only composed of a singular water bottle and three cans of pre-boiled eggs. Seth took the lead as we left the cramped space.

Just as I had suspected, the city was in ruin. The once towering skyscrapers that make up the majority of Goldsboro were now nothing more than a collective mountain of concrete, melted metal, and shattered glass. Only a single building still stood, towering over everything else. The top of the building was obscured by the dark smoke rose from all over the city. It drifted in an upward flow, following the blow of the ash-filled wind. The air itself smelt burnt.

A shadow passed over us as several chunks of debris was carried through the orange river. Crystals, rocks, and trees limbs had also gotten caught up in the waves, along with bodies. None of them moved as they swept away. The trees around us were all broken and lying on the ground. The majority of the giant roots that once connected each floating city block were now mostly broken and hanging limply over the edge of the yellow stone foundations. I watched as Seth walked over to the edge of the sidewalk and looked down.

Reaching down, I picked up a leaf. I stared at its bright blue color for a moment before absently shoving it in my pocket. I did the same with a small rock and a crystal shard. I observed the shard a bit longer. I held it up to my eye and looked through it, see the world in a green hue.

“Come and look at this,” Seth called. I looked back at him. His face twisted in confusion and shock. He took a step away from the edge, over toward me and then back down.

Curious, I walked over and joined him. Below us, below the floating city was the ground. The sky around the city was clear, not a single cloud in sight. We were able to see clear to the ground. Surprising it was only a few thousand feet down. Even from the distance, I was able to make out the abandoned streets that still rested on the ground below. Everything under us was still as grey as it once had been. There were now deep indents from where the city blocks were lifted from the ground.

We looked up when the roar of an airship began to fill the air. It came from far past the edge of Goldsboro. Behind it, sitting in the not so distant horizon, was another city. I could see the shine of the yellow stones against the white-grey sky. Tiny dots of aircraft moved over the city as smoke rose from it. Scanning over the skyline, I was able to see other cities, places that I didn’t even know existed. All of them were sitting a lift in the sky. Everyone within them stuck within the city as it gets destroyed. All because of me.

The approaching airship flew over us, the roar if the engines vibrated the very air as it went. In the daylight, I was able to clearly make out the triangle-like shape that had large burning exhaust ends burned on the back and bottom of the metal ship. The black metal glistened in the light. The aircraft slowed to a stop before slowing to a stop and turning in the air. The air picked up as the craft slowly begins to descend. Seth takes my hand and looks around for a place to hide, but the craft has already made its way toward us.

A side panel slid on the aircraft slide open, revealing several Enforcers. Their hooded faces watched us as Seth pulled me along. We were forced to stop after only going a few dozen feet when we meet the edge of the block. The few roots that remained connecting the city blocks together were small and frail looking. There was nowhere to go. We were trapped.

"Maybe we can jump it," Seth thought out loud. We couldn't. We both knew that. A group of three Enforcers descended down from the aircraft on ropes. They moved on us, trapping us between them and the edge.

"Stay away from us," Seth shouted at them. "What more can you take from us? We can't do anything to you."

Their blank stare didn't change in the slightest. It was as if they didn't even register what he had said. The Enforcers reached out and grabbed us. Their grip was painful and more than enough to bruise. The claw-like nails nicked at my skin. They dragged us over the low hover aircraft before we were heaved up and thrown inside. I was a barely able to register the pain of hitting the warm metal before a pair of hands grabbed me and hauled in their a metal door. Seth followed soon after and the door to the cage was locked.

There were three others in there with us. All of them scared, dirty and bruised. One of the who sat slumped in the back had one side of their abdomen covered in grey blood. They didn't move. I doubted that they were even alive. None of us who remained of us said a word to each other. I sat where I had landed and watched as the Enforcers stood near the black metal walls of the airship. It rocked as it took off, the destroyed city moved from my view as the world through the glass of the front window turned to face the Uni-cell building.

We all watched silently, the sound of the ship's engine the only sound around us, as we approached the building. All I was able to think about was how my life once was. And how quickly everything had changed. My job wasn't that bad. Hines and the Overseers may have been planning to use us and this country for whatever plans they had, but at least it wasn't this. Trapped in a cage and being brought to an unknown fate. If we were lucky it would be a quick death.

The trip wasn't long. Flying over the city took far longer than walking through it. When we were over the Uni-cell headquarters the aircraft hover shortly before the floor below me and the other captives dropped down. Everything spun as we plummeted down in some kind of pit. I blacked out shortly before landing.

I woke up to Seth sitting over me. When I tried to move a terrible pain shot through my right arm. My eyes watered as I gripped my arm, right below the area where it hurt the most.

"It is probably broken," Seth said. "Come on, you should sit up."

I shook my head. "Too much pain."

Seth grabbed me with his good arm and tried to set me up. "I know, but trust me, you don't want to be laying down."

I looked up at him with a frown and then looked around us. Bodies were everywhere. Most of them, nearly all were dead. Few were still whole. Despite the intense pain, I allowed Seth to help me to sit. Grey blood covered everything. The few people that were alive were either too injured to move, or were at the sides of the round pit, desperate to get out.

The sides of the pit were solid black, the lower parts smeared with blood. There were so many bodies. It was impossible to tell how deep the pit went. They must have been collecting corpses all night. Since the start of the attack. Most of the bodies were in pieces, like brown apart from the explosions. The pit smelled awful. I felt disgusting. Both from the sheer amount of blood that covered me and having to sit and an enumeration amount of corpses.

The blood soaked through Seth's and my clothes. It was impossible to tell if it was ours or not. Under it, I couldn't see any lacerations on my body, but I could be sure. My body was in so much pain. More pain than I had ever experienced in my entire life. It made it hard to breathe.

I looked up as another airship came to hover over the pit. Metal doors opened up under the back portion of it, allowing another unfortunate group of people to be dropped down with us. One of them hit against the giant towering tube that rose from the center of the pit. The tube reached almost as high as the pit walls. At the top stood people in dark clothing.

“Which one of you is it?” The voice came from all around us. It vibrated throughout the pit. It was the voice of Lucas Hines. “Which one of you is responsible for destroying everything that I have worked toward? I know that you are down there. Or perhaps you are already dead? We shall find out.”

I watched as Hines bent down toward some kind of box-shaped thing that sat at his feet. It glistened like metal in the sunlight. He moved something near one of the edged before one side was burst open. It was hard to tell against the near white sky, but something flew out. It circled around in the air shortly before diving down into the pit. It weaved over the mass of bodies before heading toward Seth and I. As it moved closer, I began to make out the colors over its back.

I could help but smile as Hue flew over, slow just enough to not completely crash into me when landed, clutching onto my chest. He nuzzled his head into my neck, a low rumbling noise coming from him. With my good are I rubbed his back as he pushed himself further under my chin.

"I'm glad you're okay," I told him. I was so happy to see that he was still alive. It was the most relieved I had ever been before. I had never realized how much Hue meant to me until I lost him.

Our joyful reunion didn’t last long. We felt the air begin to whirl around us like some kind of storm. Looking up, I saw that an airship lowering down toward us. A metal claw dropped down upon us, gripping us in its metal appendages. I pain moved through my arm in agonizing waves. I gripped Hue as we were lifted up. My stomach churned as cold, bloody bodies were pushed, painfully against my own. The smell and feel of the corpses were making me nauseous.

Hue squirmed uncomfortably against me as we were lifted out of the pit. He was able to wiggle out as the metal claw moved up over the walls of the pit. With a metallic clank, we were released from the metallic grasp. I dropped, painfully, with the bodies on the concrete above the pit. I cried out from the pain in my arm.

“What’s happening?” Seth asked beside me.

The bodies were moved away from me. I looked up to see Enforcers throwing the corpses back into the pit. At my side, Seth was taken by the back of his neck and forced to look up. The bandages had fallen from his face and arms, exposing his burning skin. The Enforcers grabbed onto my neck the same way they had him. We sat there and watched as Hines walked up to us.

It was my first time really seeing him. He wore a suit so black that it looked unaffected by the sunlight. His hair was completely shaved, with only a dark shadow noting where his hair once was. In his right hand was a sphere that looked to be made of clear glass.

"So, you two are the ones responsible for all this mess." His dark eyes turned to me. "Of course something like you would cause this kind of trouble."

"What does that mean?" I challenged.

"Remember who you are talking to, you discolored degenerate. Besides, it would be a was of time to explain it," He said as he watched Hue fly over us. He stayed far enough to be out of the Enforcers' reach. Hines raised the glass ball over his head and it began to glow white.

The city rubbled and shook as streams of color lifted from Hue's back. He slowly flew down towards me, dropping every bit or so as if he was struggling to stay in the air. The colored sections on his back shrank as he landed at my knees. I tried to reach out to him, but the grip on my neck kept me in place. Hue wiggled on the ground helplessly as his body began to shrink. He was reverting back as whatever power the colors were providing him was draining away.

"Stop!" I shouted. I tried clawing at the cold hand that held onto my throat, but nothing helped. "Leave him alone."

Hue was able to move close enough that I was able to pull him in my arms. In minutes Hue was once again a solid white fish. He flopped in my grip helplessly as he struggled to breathe. Above us, Hines continued to draw in color into the sphere, this time the rivers of color came from all around. Emerging up from the sides of the Uni-Cell building. Everything lurched as Goldsboro began to descend from the sky. An echoing splash rang through the city as the river above had its color drained away and fell from the sky.

“What are you doing?” Seth shouted.

“I am correcting what you two have broken,” Hines said, before pointing over to an Enforcer who wasn’t holding Seth and me in place. “You. Get the machine started. The sooner we turn those rejects into materials, the faster I can get this country back to working properly.”

“What do you mean by turning them into material?” Seth asked.

Hines didn’t answer him. The Enforcer walked over to a small, concrete building that sat on the room. When they opened the door, I could see the dim lights of some kind of control panel. They typed into a keyboard and pushed a dark button. From just past Seth, I saw long, flat beam rise out from the sides of the pit and from the large pillar that stood at its center.

The deep grating of engines and giant gears sounded from below us, shaking the ground, as the pillar began to turn. The area where the beams crossed over and under each other only allowed for a few feet of leeway. Certainly not enough for anyone in the pit to avoid them. I was unable to see it happen, but the sounds were more than enough.

It began with panicked screaming as those who were still alive below realized what was happening. Next, was the crunching and snapping as bodies were pushed crushingly together and forced to bend in unnatural ways. I shuddered at the sound. Material. This is what he had meant? Grid up all those people for what? He had factories to make more workers, is this what he used to make them, the ground remains of those who were unfit to work for him?

“How could you do such a thing?” Seth shouted. The Enforcer holding him let go. A moment later his face was pressed into the ground, a heavy boot keeping his head there.

The crushing noise softened until it was replaced with wet churning. The screaming had long since stopped. The building shook as the city finished its descent. The others in the distance weren’t that far behind. The tail ends of the long streams of color finally disappeared into the sphere, which was now glowing brightly. Its white light was blinding.

“Finally,” Hines said. “Soon everything will put right once again, and this place can get back to functioning properly.”

“What is all of this for?” I asked. I brushed my thumb over Hue’s cold scales. He went still a while ago. “You didn’t do all of this for nothing. So what do you get out of it? Why go through all this trouble for just business?”

Hines glared down at me. “I did it because this is my country. I have the most powerful company. I control all governing powers. I am the one in charge, and you two almost destroyed that. You may think that I’m responsible for the deaths of the people in that hole, but in fact, that is all on you. If it wasn't for me, many more lives would be lost along with theirs.”

"Soon everything will be set right again. This country will be back to functioning properly. This new wave of workers will finally be perfected. No more heedless rebellions or deviators. They will know and accept their place. But where does that leave you two? I can't throw you in with the others and risk you both tainting the rest of my workers."

He held out the glowing sphere toward us. Two streams of light reached out and engulfed Seth and I. I could feel even inch of my body clenching as the energy of the light pulled at something inside me. Whiteness flooded my vision as my ears began to ring. Through the noise, I could hear screaming. It was distant and muffled. Couldn't tell whose voice it was.

"There is no point in struggling," Hines said, his voice clear. "You've lost."


	11. Chapter 11

"You've lost."

When I awoke I was laying in a cold bed and using my arm as a pillow. I stared confused at the wall that the bed sat as I tried to sort myself out. Thinking hard, I tried to remember what I had dreamt about. No matter how much I focused, I couldn't regain the memory of my dream. After a few minutes had passed whatever bits I thought I had a grasp on had already faded from my mind. At most, I could feel the emotions that came with the dream. The fear, the anxiousness, the panic. But those too were fading fast.

I turned and looked over my small room. Other than the bed and the light above me, there was nothing else within it. Not there would be any room if I did had anything to put in it. To the wall in front of me was the door to the hallway. The square window on it allowed for the hallway light to shine in. Something cold and heavy pressed against my neck. Panicked, I felt around. The cold metal of the re-education collar met my fingers. I let my hands drop from my neck as I remembered. Everyone in the factory had one. There were fine as long as no one broke any of the factory rules. At worse, they were a bit uncomfortable.

I stood from my bed and did my morning stretches. I wasn't allowed much movement during working hours, so I liked to stretch my body out while I could. I was much too tired to do them after work. After going to the toilet that was located on the right side of the room, I dressed in my work clothes. They didn't look any different than the plain gray of my sleeping clothes. Other than a few stains they had in them from work. Working at the factory could get messy.

I sat at my bed and waited for the door to make a clicking sound. Trying to open it beforehand was a violation of the rules and would result in an electric shock from the collar. After three shocks the collar would terminate the wearer. I'd never been shocked before. I've seen people who have been and that was more than enough to keep me from breaking any rules. Though I always did wonder if the door ever really locked or if the collar was enough to keep people from trying.

Eventually, the door did click. I opened the door and headed down the hall with dozens of others. The hallway turned and widened as other workers from different areas joined us. All of us silently walked to the dining area. The dining area was the same light grey as the hallways and our rooms. Everything was basically the same dull color. The only difference was the metal pipes that ran over our head and the collar around our necks. That at least had a shine to it.

Plates of food had already been set on the tables. I took a seat and began eating. The breakfast was nothing more than a cup of water and a bowl of tasteless mush that looked more like something used in building material. Meal times only lasted for fifteen minutes. The time counted down on a large digital clock that sat above a set of large metal doors. When the clock reached all zeros it was off to work. No one was allowed to go anywhere until meal time was up. Doing so would result in a shock from the worker's collar.

No one talked. There wasn't enough time to. It wasn't as if there was anything to talk about either. Everyone lived the same life as everyone else. We all did the same things. There was nothing worth discussing.

Everyone just ate as much as they could. They shoveled their food in much faster than I did. It was hard for me to eat it. The soft, mushy meal lacked any taste and had the consistency of something that shouldn't be eaten. It was hard to chew. Instead, I took in small spoonfuls and just swallowed. I would have preferred to simply not eat it at all, but our next meal wouldn't be for another eight hours. Waiting long wasn't worth it.

There was no sound when the countdown ended. There was no need, the loud groan of the metal doors sliding open was more than enough. We all stood and headed down the hallway. It split into four separate paths. Each of them leading to a different section of the factory that all did the same thing. I followed one-fourth of the crowd down one of the hallways that led to a large room.

At the far end of the room was a large machine that covered nearly the entire upper part of the wall. Supposedly the machine was attached to a giant container of sorts that doubt just outside of the building. Three metal tubes stretched down from the machine and out across the far wall until their openings hovered over individual conveyor belts. These belts were about three feet wide and had a half foot wall in each side.

Everyone quickly filled into one of the seats at the sides of the belt. A pair of gloves for each of us had been left waiting on our seats. We all sat down and waited for the loud clanking roar that filled the room and the belts kicked on. The roaring machine began spitting out a deep grey substance. it was thick and pulpy. Bits of broken, white shards and clumps of dark, sometimes light, strands were mixed into the substance.

Next to each of us sat a square funnel that led to somewhere under the floor. My job, everyone's job, was to pick out the strands and shards from the pulpy substance. It was simple work but also endless. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, we all pick out what our employers deemed as unneeded. We had to be careful of the shards. Sometimes they were buried in the mush and could poke through your hand if you weren't careful.

Some of the shards stretched as long as my forearm, sometimes longer. The strands were usually tangled together and occasionally were attached to some kind flat fleshy mass. Those were rather disgusting. I was quick to toss them down the tin shoot. None of us knew why we did our work but that didn't matter. We were given food and a place to live in. What more could we want?

I picked out each offending piece with each as they passed me. Most of the others used on hand, but I preferred to use both of mine. The movement felt natural for me. It reminded me of awkward typing. Typing. The word sounded familiar, but I didn't actually know what it was. What I did know, is that thinking about it made me feel something. It was somewhat like the feeling I had when I tried to remember my dream.

While I picked through the dark mess, I did my best to concentrate on that feeling and try to figure out what it was. What kind of emotion was it? I couldn’t tell if it was positive or negative or even why I cared about it. It wasn’t like remembering the dream would mean anything. It wasn’t as if knowing would make me a better worker after all. I suppose I was just giving myself something to think about. My work, everyone’s work, did not require much thought after all.

My mine switched back to reality when a dull buzz sounded through the room. It was barely audible over the sound of the machine, but I was able to tell that it came from a few seats down from me. “Worker 2854, you are working at an insufficient pace,” a synthetic voice said. “This will be recorded as your first offense.”

I immediately knew what would come next. The electricity that surged through the man was visible in the form of white light that glowed from within the man’s neck. He swore through gritted teeth. The man’s body seized and convulsed on the floor for several long seconds.

When the shocks finally ended high pitched beeping sound came from his color. A countdown. After a shock, a person was given twenty seconds to recover and get back to work. The man was able to get back into his chair and continue working. He moved slowly, clearly still in pain. There have been times when people weren’t able to get back up within the time limit. Most of them weren’t.

The man frowned down at the space in front of himself. He didn’t look like everyone else. The skin on his entire right side of his body looked warped and scarred. Was he always like that or did something happen to him? An accident? Or maybe a punishment?

I wanted to ask him, but I had never spoken to another worker before. None of us talked. There was never a reason to. I didn't want to be the first on to break this, let alone with a question like that. Where would I even find the time to ask him? I couldn't ask him now, with everyone else around and definitely not just after he had been punished. What if talking was against the rules? I didn't want to be responsible for getting us punished. No, it was better to leave the question unasked.

My mind soon grew restless with nothing to occupy it. I tried counting the things I pulled out of the moving mess before me. Keeping track of each thing I removed with a separate number. 1-0. 3-2. 5-3. And so on. Keeping track became tricky once I got into the mid-teens and soon after I lost count.

As the minutes and hours slowly passed, my body began to ache. Tiny, needle-like pain pricked within my shoulders every time I would move them. To ease this I began taking breaks with each hand, only using one for several minutes at a time. The base of my back felt tight. I wanted to release the discomfort, but I did not want to fidget. My stomach hurt worst of all. Breakfast had been sure. After only a few hours I began feeling hunger. I wasn't sure how much time had passed since we began working, by now that hunger had grown into deep pain. I could feel it twist uncomfortably as air shifted within me.

Others around me scratched and pulled at their stomachs. Internal growls of hunger were heard through the sound of the machine. Waves of nausea periodically went through me. Over time I began to wonder if I was hungry at all or if I was falling ill instead. I had no idea how sickness would affect my work. I must have been overthinking. After all my stomach wasn't to only one making noises. The others and I were just hungry, that's all it was to it.

Eventually, it was finally time for lunch. The roar of the machine went quiet, leaving a ringing in my ears. The conveyor belt moved on until we had picked through the last bit of mess. Afterward, we dropped out stained gloves down into the shoots beside us. We all stood and exited the workroom, following the hallway back where we come from hours earlier.

We reunited with the other three groups of workers as we made our way back to the dining area. Once there, we all took our seats. Bowls of food were already sitting out waiting for us. It was the same smooth light colored, tasteless mush as breakfast. I was so hungry that I didn't care. I ate as much as I could. The consistency and taste made it hard, but I needed the hunger pains to go away.

"I hate this."

I glanced over to my right and saw the man who had been shocked earlier today. He was frowning down at his bowl. It looked like he had hardly eaten any of it. He pulled his spoon from the bowl and watched as the mush stuck to it, stretching out in a thick grey rope of mush. Lumps dropped down with thin strands clinging after it.

"This is disgusting. How can anyone eat this?" He said. More to himself than anyone else. He dropped the spoon back into the bowl making the mush jiggle from the impact. “There is no way that this is considered actual food. We work all day only to break long enough to eat this trash. This is insane.”

“Would you stop talking already. Or do you want the collar to punish you again?” Someone said from across the room.

“Excuse me for not sitting around in silent complacency like the rest of you,” the scarred man said while leaning forward on the table.

“No one is happy about our situation,” someone else shouted out. All you’re doing is making it worse for everyone else. Just be quiet.”

“Then why don’t we do something about it?” The man next to me muttered.

“We can’t with these collars around our necks,” I said to him.

“Then we need to figure out a way to remove them.” He then turned to me. “Hold still for a bit and try not to move.”

Before I could respond he reached out toward my collar and began looking over it. There wasn’t much to see on it. There were two white lights indicating that I hadn’t received any punishments. To the side of that, there were numbers printed on the side displaying which worker I was. However, that was only what I could learn from the people who have sat next to me during work and meal times.

“Be careful, I don’t want it to shock me,” I said after feeling him pick at something on the metal.

“If we can find something to unscrew the small panel on here and get to the wiring, and something that can ruin the insides, we might be able to break it,” he mused.

Before I could ask how he planned on doing something like that, the metal doors slid open. Mealtime had run out and it was time to go back to work. The scarred man said nothing as we stood and walked with the others back down the hallway. Other workers passed glances at us as we walked. To be specific, they weren’t exactly looking at me.

A new set of gloves were left sitting on our chairs when we returned. We all took different seats than before. This time around the scarred man and I sat next to each other near the front of the room, the furthest away from the machine. The conveyor belts began their slow movement as the machine kicked on and we all resumed our work.

Time passes just as slowly as before. Honestly, it felt slower realizing how long it will be until the next break in work. Not to mention that I was still hungry. I had emptied my bowl at mealtime, but it only helped to take the edge off. I dreaded to think how it would worsen by the end of the day.


	12. Chapter 12

Work was over for the day and the third meal of the day had passed as well. Now I was laying my bed struggling to fall asleep. My shoulders were sore and hunger pains twisted in my stomach. Dinner had not filled me up and the remaining hunger was keeping me awake despite my exhaustion. Every time I shifted on the stiff bed, it felt as my joints were grating directly against each other.

I was so tired. I turned and stared at the far side of my room. My life would always be like this. Tired, overworked and hungry. It had always been like this, hadn't it? I couldn't remember doing anything else, so why did I feel so new to all of this. I knew what to expect and yet there was still something about it all that felt odd. When I tried to think about it I got that same feeling of when I tried to remember my dream.

I signed and shifted in the bed so that I was laying on my back. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the weight of heavy metal on my neck and fall asleep. My stomach growled. It sounded so loud in the quiet room. I reopened my eyes upon hearing a different sound. It sounded like it had come from the hallway. After a bit, it sounded again. There was a soft knocking coming from my door. I sat up and saw a figure standing in front of my window. The knocking came again.

I stood up and went up to the door. This close, I was able to see that it was the scared man from earlier today. His mouth moved as if he was speaking but I wasn't able to hear him. I leaned closer and tried to listen.

"I found a way to get the collars off," he said. "I'm going to push some things under the door, okay?"

I nodded and stepped back. A small, folded lump of cloth was pushed out from under the short rubber flap that separated the space between the door and the floor. Lifting it up, I realized that it was filled with something cold and mushy. I lifted part of it open to see that grey mush from mealtime inside.

"There is a small splinter in there too. You can use it to unscrew the side panel of the collar."

I nodded and felt around it the object. Once I found it, I felt around for the small panel and the four tiny screws that secured it in place. One end of the white splinter was so small that it was almost a point. It took a while to find the first screw. The scarred man tried to help me by pointing in the direction I needed to go, but that was just as effective as me just feeling around. It was a bit of a relief when the first screw hit the ground, but I still had three more to go. My arms hurt from holding them up, but I finally got the panel off. Afterward, I moved up to the door and listened.

"Okay, good, now take the food I brought and shove as much as you can into the hole. The collar should short out and open up."

"Okay," I said back. I didn't know if he heard me. I took the food that I had left leaking onto my bed and started filling it into the rectangular hole in the collar. Even if I was trying to break it, I was as careful as I could possibly manage. There were small wires and screws inside that I pushed the mush in between. The mush stuck to the sides and itself, forming into on thick clump.

"Tampering detected," the synthetic voice said.

I heard a crackling as the collar began to spark. No pain came as smoke rose from the mush filled hole. The smell was horrible and I had to cover my eyes to keep the smoke from stinging them. There was a frighteningly loud pop and the sparks died out. The grip of the collar released with a click and fell from my neck. I caught it and looked it over. The food mush was burned into a harden black mass that was hot to the touch. Smoke poured from the cracks in it. I looked up from the broken collar as the door to my room opened.

"Come on," the scarred man said. "Let's find a way out of here."

"What about everyone else?" I asked as I followed him out into the hallway.

"We don't have enough disgusting food for everyone else here. We need to find more materials for them to use."

Our hallway only ended in a dead end, so he had to head forward up to where this hallway met with others to form the larger one. On our way to the dining area we kept a lookout for any doors we could've missed. But there was nothing but plain grey walls. When we made it to the dining area it was the same as well. The usual bright lights were off, instead, smaller dimmer lights spread sparsely over the ceiling lit the room. The tables were clear of any bowls or cups from hours earlier, and the room smelled of cleaning chemicals.

"What if there isn't a way out of here?" I asked.

"There has to be. Someone is cleaning in here and preparing the food. We just need to find where they go."

"For all, we know it could be just another group of workers like ours. We don't know what the others do, the could be the ones doing all this."

He shook his head. "Then what about the food? It had to come from somewhere. We just need to check the other workrooms, there had to be something there."

He walked over to the metal doors at the back end of the room. The time at the top of them was off. The scarred man tried to pry open the doors. Walking up, I saw that there was nothing for his fingers to grab ahold of, the doors were too smooth and left no opening between them. There was no way we could get through them.

"There has to be a way out of here!" he shouted. "This can't be a sealed building. There has to be some way to get in and out. The door wouldn't be this secure if it wasn't. We need to find a way to pry it open."

"With what? There isn't anything around that we can use," I told him.

“What about the splinter we left back in your room? We can use that.”

“I don’t think that will be strong enough.”

“Then what do you suggest we do then? We have to figure out something because I’m not going back to being a slave to this place.”

I gaze drifted from the smooth metal door up to the dark clock above it. “What if we waited until morning? After everyone has eaten the doors will open anyway and we can try to escape then.”

He sighed. “The last thing I want to do is wait, trapped in here any longer. But that does sound like a reasonable idea. Fine, we’ll wait until morning.”

As soon as the words left his mouth a deep heavy and hollow clunking sound echoed out from behind the giant metal doors as they began to slowly slide open. We both panicked and ran in opposite directions to hide behind the nearby tables. I peeked out from under the table and chair legs to see a figure move through the opening doors.

This person was incredibly tall and casted a shadow that was twice as big. From my place under the table, I was only able to see their hands, which were more bone than flesh. They had long claw-like nails. They wore long black robes that reached down to the floor. No sound was made as the figure walked forward. It looked more like they were gliding over the floor.

I watched the figure slowly and silently crept through the room. A movement drew my attention to my acquaintance. He was waving and pointing toward the open door. He wanted us to go through. The tall creature hadn't so much as paused in its movement. It seemed to set in its path. I nodded and we both carefully inched our way the doors. I kept my eye on the creature as we stepped out from behind the tables. It had a bald head that was as white and boney as its hands. We stared at it as we walked through the open doors.

Similar to the dining area, the hallway was lit with smaller lights that were separated for with several feet between them. Out in the narrow passage it created spots of complete darkness. We walked near the wall to keep ourselves hidden in case the creature turned around. It never did. Eventually, it disappeared into the low light of the opposing hallway.

"What was that thing?" I whispered.

"I'd don't know, I've never seen anything like it before. But thanks to it we don't have to go back."

"Where should we start looking?" I asked.

"We don't have to bother with where we work. We should search one of the other rooms."

That was easier said than done. The hallways were a much different place when it was hard to see where we were going. We kept our hands on the walls and followed them. It was impossible to tell where we were going otherwise. The hallways were cold and the only noise was the sound of our footsteps. The further we walked more anxious I became. I was afraid that we might run into another one of those things walking around. More so of what might happen if it sees us.

"Hold on," the scarred man said as he stopped walking. I watched as he felt around the space in front of him. "There's a door here."

"Is it locked?" The sound of the door clicked open gave me my answer.

When he opened the door, bright light poured into the hallway. A wave of heat crashed around us. My eyes stung as we looked into the large room. We stood near some kind of metal walkway. Stepping forward, I saw that it overlooked a work floor with four large boiling vats of dark liquid. It looked to be the same shade as the pulpy mush we picked through for work. Giant fork-like machines slowly turned the material as various pipes feed into it from above. Larger pipes connected the side of each vat and trailed out to the far side of the room connecting to the wall.

The entire room smelled horrible. If my stomach wasn’t already empty, I’m sure I would have heaved its contents onto the floor. It was so strong that Seth and I had to cover our noses. The metal railing burned when touched. The air was hot and dry. Every breath burned my lungs. Sweat rolled down my back as Seth and I made our way down the walkway.

Walking around below us were dozens of people were dressed the same as we were. Some were pushing large bins on wheels across the work floor. Others were standing on platforms near vats and pressing buttons into a console. Keeping close to the wall, we walked around the edge of the room to a door that was connected to the same wall as the larger pipes headed into.

Going the door, we entered a separate, smaller room. In this one, the dark liquid was poured into individual human shaped molds before passing under plastic flaps and entering a cube-shaped machine. There a light coming from in between the flaps that faded in and out at different cycles. With each time the light reached its brightest point, it felt like a wave of energy moved through the room. It was like a silent vibration that I could only feel deep inside my chest. The feeling was worse than nausea.

I wasn’t sure if I was the only one that felt it. I didn’t get a chance to ask. Not after seeing what lay on the other side of the machine. Within the moldings were now people. They lay perfectly still almost dead-like as the conveyor belt carried them on its path through the wall into the next room. I didn’t want to see what was beyond that wall but there was nowhere else to go but forward.

Within the third room were more workers like us. They woke the people from the molds and helped them step out, off the conveyor belt and onto some kind of long vehicle that had many seats but was without sides or a roof. The long vehicle looked to have steering wheels on both ends. At the far end of the room was a wide set door that was large enough for the vehicle to pass through.

My co-worker tugged me forward toward the end of the walkway. I hadn’t realized I had stopped. At the end was a door heading to the wall at our left and a set of metal stairs heading down to the work floor. There wasn’t any conceivable way that we were going to go downward, so I opened the door. We stepped through it and into a small, dark area with a staircase leading upward. Above it was another and another. The stairwell reached impossibly high above us.

“I wouldn’t have guessed that the building was this tall,” I said.

“It must be some kind of tower. Come on, let's see what’s up there.”

Without a word, I followed him up the first flight of stairs. Neither of us said a word about what we had seen minutes before. It was hard to process. Those people, we, were made here in this factory. Like machine parts. It made me consider what it was that we had spent so many hours of our time picking out of that dark mush. Or even what it was. A smaller, partially suppressed part of me wondered if there was even a way out of this place.

There was a metal door on it with B12 written on it in large, blocky text. The wait paint was faded and had chipped away in several places. I reached out and tested the handle. A low clank echoes through the stairwell. It was locked. I guess it was too much to ask to be lucky twice. We continued up to the next level. This door was marked B11. It was locked as well. As were the third, fourth, and fifth doors we tried.

We climbed higher and higher through the small passage, we only paused long enough to check each door we passed. Eventually, we passed the doors with the B in front of their number and began ascending to the ones without the letter. We stopped at a platform and took a short break. The door on it was marked with a solo eight.

"I far up do you think we'll have to go before we find a door that isn't locked?" I asked.

"Who knows? They probably have all these doors locked to keep people like us from getting out."

"Wouldn't that mean that every level of this place has more people locked up too?" Were there other floors that were making workers as well?

"There's a good chance of that, yes." It was quiet for a moment as we listened to the growl of our stomachs. I wondered if the others were awake and eating by now. Even know who tasteless and disgusting it was, I craved the lumpy mush downstairs. Maybe we would be able to find something better to eat on our way out of here. "My name is Seth by the way. I guess I should have introduced myself sooner."

"I'm Sol," I told him. "You name sounds familiar."

"That's funny, I was thinking the same about yours. Who knows maybe we've met before?"

"You think so? I can remember anything outside of working downstairs. Although, I have been getting the feeling that I've forgotten something."

"I have too. Once we're out of here, I want to figure out what it is. It could be something important."

"What about the others down there? When we find a way out, shouldn't we go back to help them?" I looked over the railing of the stairs, down the dim bottom.

"I had planned to, but that was before we saw that thing and knew how large this place was. If there are more people on each of the floors we passed and the ones above, then there is no way we can break them all out on our own. We'll need help."

"When we get out, then we can find others who can help too. Like a rescue team."

"Yeah, that sounds like that could work."

Seth stepped over to the metal door that this platform sat with. He reached out towards the handle, but before he touched it, the door began to open. We both huddled behind the opening door when one of those tall, black-robed figures stepped out. I watched over Seth's shoulder as it began silently lifted its head up. I could hear the sound of it smelling the air. Turning to look down the stairs, it smoothly made its way down.

Reaching out, Seth grabbed the door and stopped it from closing. I quickly slipped inside, Seth right behind me. He kept the handle pushed down while closing the door to keep the sound of it shutting low. It gave a barely audible click as it shut. We looked out into our new surroundings. We now stood in a bright white hallway that separated into different directions. At the very end of the wide path was a large window that made up the entirety of the wall. Together we walked out towards it and gaze out.

We saw a towering city of concrete and glass that shined brightly with the rising sun. The dark streets below were empty and clear of any signs of life. Sparse, white clouds slowly drifted over the light grey sky. I could hear the sound of the blowing wind through the thick glass. Touching it, I could feel the coldness of the world outside.

"I expected there to be more," Seth said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I don't know how to describe it. It's like, I guess I expected there to be more to the outside world. I thought I'd see people, life, something to be excited about. This just looks like an open, brighter version of what we had downstairs."

"Well, it is still morning. Maybe once we get out there and see other parts of the city, it'll be more like what you were expecting."

"Maybe," he said before pushing. I could tell from his face that something was bothering him. "Come on, let's get out of here."

We stepped away from the window and began to wander the hallways. We kept near the out wall, believing it would make it easier to keep from getting lost. Everything to the walls and the tiled floor was completely white. That coupled with the light from the outside made it hard to look at. Like the other parts of this building, everything was quiet. If I did know any better, I'd think this floor was empty, but one of those tall black-robed figures moved so silently that they could be anywhere. Eventually, we came upon a set of stairs. One leading up to the next floor another leading down.

"Which way?" I asked. I kept my voice low in case anything was near.

"We should go down, We have a better chance of finding a way out."

With that decided, we neared the descending steps only to stop. One of those robed things was walking up to the bottom of the steps. It hadn't spotted us as it was keeping its gaze forward, staring unblinkingly into nothingness. Seth and I took the ascending steps. We slipped down a hallway and hid behind a corner. We kept watch and waited but it never came up the stairs.

"It had only been a few days and that boy is already shown to be ready to cause trouble again," a raspy male voice said from further within the hallway. Seth and I shared a look before going off to search for the voice.

"Yes, I have noticed," another man said. For an unknown reason, his voice sounded familiar to me. It gave me an unpleasant feeling in my stomach. "I'll have him terminated along with the other one. That should settle whatever it is that keeping this place unstable."

"If it does not," the first one started again "then this whole event will be a waste of time. And you, Hines, will be eliminated as well."

"I will keep that in mind."

We rounded a corner as saw four men standing at a door. Most of them had their backs toward us. Three of them were dressed in long grey robes, similar to those things we had seen in the stairwell. On the back of them was a vertical eye over a curved line. Their skin had an unnatural, sickly looking paleness that almost completely white in color. The fourth man was bald like the other, though instead of a robe he wore a black suit.

"I think they are talking about us," Seth whispered.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“Let’s listen and see if we can learn anything from them.” We knelt down on the floor and listened We weren’t able to see anything, but that only meant they couldn’t see us either.

"You really should, this is your fault after all," a second voice said. This one had a higher pitch than the others.

"My fault?" the Hines person shouted.

"It was your key that allowed those two to get as far as the did," a third voice said. This one kept and even, almost bored tone.

"I will have all of this fixed soon enough. Once it is done I will regain control over everything against. Which would be a lot easier if I wasn't stuck in this city."

"The power that is keeping this world on the edge of destruction is also what is keeping this city separated from it." The first one said.

"I told you, it will be handled. I'll have those two killed and then the remaining energy will be back under my control."

"Then you'd better get on it then," the second voice said.

It was quiet for a bit as a single pair of footsteps started up and the faded away. Seth peaked around the corner before whispering to me. "The one in the suit left."

"What is the chance he actually succeeds?" the bored voice asks.

"He had already failed when common workers were able to use the powers of this land against him," the first said.

"Does this mean we can leave?"

"No, we'll see how this ends."


	13. Chapter 13

The three men had left, once again leaving the hallways silent. I followed Seth as he stood and moved over to the door that the men had been standing in front of. The door had been left unlocked allowing us to step inside. The room wasn't very large. A dark grey table sat in the middle with seven chairs set around it.

On the table sat a small tank filled with water. I white fish swam within it. A grey jacket sat balled up next to it. In front of them were six items. A rock that was a bright yellow. A group of four blue leaves. A green shard of some kind of crystal. A small jar of orange transparent liquid. What looked to be bright red scales. A large key that looked to be made of wood. And finally, a ball that looked to made of clear glass.

"What is all this?" I asked while walking up to the table.

The fish splashed around frantically as I neared it. Despite all the brightly colored things around, this is what drew me in. I leaned over the lidless tank and watched as it swam to the top. Its dark eyes stared into mine. Without warning, it jumped out of the tank at me. Panicked, I shouted. The fish was cold and nearly impossible to keep ahold of as it squirmed in my hands. I was able to get a grip on it and drop it back into the water. I hissed from the pain of my side hitting again the table.

"We have to stay quiet," Seth whispered at me.

"It jumped out at me," I told him. It wasn't like I had meant to shout.

He gave as confused looks as a strange noise moved through the room. It sounded like rolling. We looked down just in time the translucent ball roll to the floor and shatter. Hundreds of bright lights rose from the broken pieces. More and more of them poured out. I was forced to cover my eyes from the blinding lights. I felt something pass through me, like a strong wind. Forgotten memories flashed, rapidly through my mind. When I looked up again the fish was now a small dragon. I now recognized him as Hue. He flew from the tank and latched onto the front of my shirt, his head nuzzling into my chin.

"I thought you died," I told him. He made a shallow chirping sound in response. I gripped him as the building suddenly rocked. Deep, muffled rumbles echoed from all around us.

"We need to leave here before those guys come back," Seth said as he peeked out the door.

"Okay, just give me a second." I quickly pulled on my jacket and began shoving the colored items on the table in the pockets.

Hue held onto the back of my shirt as we entered the hallway and backtracked all the way to the glass wall. Fish with bright red scales flew through the city. They weren't like the once before. Those were hundreds of times larger. As they moved, their tails hit against buildings, breaking glass and concrete alike. Among them, giant yellow boulders floated about. Each of them carrying twisted blue trees. Their long roots connecting to both rocks and buildings. Long spear-like crystals had sprouted from nearly every surface, the fish included. Some lay dead over crumpled buildings. A river of orange crashed through the city, ripping through buildings, trees, rocks, crystals, and even the street when it dropped low enough.

"We need to get out of the city," I said.

We headed back to the stairs and began making our way down. We didn't have time to worry about Hines or the Enforces. The men in robes said that the energy the colors had would destroy the country. I honestly didn't think they were right. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have thought something like this would happen.

As we made our way down the stairs, Hue began picking at my pockets. "Not right now," I told him.

I knew what he wanted. He was trying to get the final color. The sixth one. But we couldn't do that now. Who knows what would happen if we did that. There was a chance that the last color could destroy everything. Us included.

A flash of darkness darted down in front of me, slamming into Seth. An Enforcer. It had come from a hallway we hadn't bothered to check down. Seth pinned to the wall. Another one was barreling towards me. There was nothing I could do before it had me by the neck. My head hit the floor. The jar I had shattered as it and the other things in my pockets spilled onto the floor. My vision darkened as I watched the milky-eyed creature choke the life from me. The force its thin hand used to press down was crushing.

Hue suddenly latched onto the side of the Enforce's neck. Freezing black liquid poured from its wound as Hue tore into it. The pressure on my throat loosened as the Enforcer grabbed Hue's tail and tried to pull him off. But that only succeeded in opening up that gash in its neck even further. The Enforcer released me as it focused all of its attention on Hue, giving me the chance to crawl away. With both hands, it was able to pull Hue from itself. It threw him down the hall, but Hue was able to right himself and fly back. The Enforcer stood and readied itself to go after him.

"Ignore that thing and restrain those two already," a voice shouted out. Looking up, I saw Hines walking down to the bottom of the steps. The men in robes following behind him.

Without thinking, I lunged at him. Hines quickly threw me to the floor. He was stronger than I anticipated. Before I could stand, he pushed his foot onto my chest, keeping to the floor. There was a thump as Seth was dropped next to me. His back was to me as he lay on his side, weakly wheezing.

"What exactly did you two hope to accomplish by doing this?" Hines asked. His voice was filled with nothing but condescension. "All the destruction and lives of everyone in this city and beyond. And you have gained nothing."

"We want freedom," Seth coughed out.

Hines looked toward him. "The only thing you have done is caused unyielding destruction and death."

"We did what we had to," Seth said.

"You have nothing to be proud of. Any fool can destroy things" Hines looked back toward me. "What about you? Do you honestly believe you have done any good here?"

"I'm not trying to do good," I told him.

"Then you act out of selfishness."

"Says the man who kills and manufactures people to serve as his enslaved workforce."

"You're right. I made you. That means I can do what I want with you."

"All to please people who have already considered you a lost cause," I continued. He frowned and pressed his foot further into my chest.

"I have not failed yet!" Hines shouted. He looked to where the one Enforcer was pulling Hue off of the other. It laid dead on the ground, its neck was in shreds, head barely hanging on. "Kill that beast. Everything will be righted once it is dead."

"They speak the truth," the taller of the robed man said. "You have long lost your opportunity to become one of us. You are unfit to be an Overseer."

"No." Hines stepped off of me. He turned and faced the robed men, the Overseers. Rolling over, I began crawling away. "Not after all I've done to get this far. You can't take this away from."

"We aren't," the high voiced on said. "you took it from yourself."

The Enforcer that was holding Hue realized him. Its body became engulfed in a light before it and the Enforcer disappeared. Now free, Hue flew over to one of the fallen leaves on the ground. He turned his body so that the dull glow from leaf would shine on the red spot on his back. A new section of color between the red and blue ones. Purple.

“You can’t leave me here to die!” I looked back to see Hines shouting at a vacant staircase. The Overseers had gone. I got to my feet in time to avoid Hines as he grabbed toward me. Instead of advancing further, Hines instead went for Seth. He walked to the side of him and kicked into his side. His body rolled over. Seth’s eyes were half-lidded and glazed over. He was dead. “Looks like your friend is gone. What will you do now?”

I glanced up the stairs to window past them. Large purple clouds had filled the sky. "Without the Enforcers, you're just one man with no power. Leave me alone."

"I created you, you have no right to speak to me like that. Not after causing all this," Hines shouted. Hue drifted up to my side, the white key held in his mouth. I took it from him. "How about this; you give me that key and I might just let you live."

"No." Hines may have been stronger than me, but with Hue, he was outnumbered and outmatched. Angered, Hines moved toward me and Hue moved between us.

"You're going to hide behind your pet?"

"You hid behind the Enforcement," I reminded him.

"Do not speak back to me!"

The building began shaking violently. The sound of glass shattering came from everywhere. Long cracks spread over the ceilings and walls. Parts of both broke off revealing internal supports and insulation. When I looked back at Hines, he was running towards me a chunk of a ceiling panel in his hands. He swung at Hue as he lunged at him, but Hue was easily able to weave around it and latch onto Hines's neck, ripping into him. Hines dropped the panel and gripped onto his bleeding neck.

"Come on," I shouted to Hue.

Together we rushed toward the stairs, passing Hines. I glanced at Seth's unmoving body as we left him. The two of us descend down the stairs. Without the Enforces, we could easily make our way down the stairs. The broken glass from the windows covered the floor near the landings of the stairs. A heavy wind rushed through the narrow hallways. I barely bothered a half decent glance out of a window I passed. When I did, I saw that the sky had gotten impossible bright. The clouds and everything else had gone. Parts of buildings were being ripped from their lower levels.

The shaking had subsided and the damage on the lower floors was less than how it was further up. The ground floor looked vertical untouched except for windows. All of them were broken, leaving glass shards covering the area around the front doors. They crunched under my shoes as I walked and into the city. The light had come from giant pillars that surrounded Goldsboro like a cage, reaching endlessly into the sky. The lights were relatively thin but looked to be vibrating and steadily growing in size. I didn't want to be around once it fully enclosed the city.

Hue and I began heading out toward the warehouse district. I knew the area well by now and knew how long it would take to get there. I kept a steady walking pace. I was winded from taking so many stairs and dealing with Hines. Not to mention that I would be able to run the entire way regardless.

I thought about where I should go. I had zero knowledge about any of the neighboring cities or even how far away they were. My only option would be to follow the roads until I ended up somewhere. That was if other cities weren't in the same state.

It started as the faint sound of something falling to the ground. It came from all around us. Looking up I saw that cracks were forming on the sides of the buildings. All of them. The cracks grew and spread until I was sure that went around the entire perimeter. A building behind me broke first. It was the Uni-Cell headquarters. From my place over a mile away, I could see as it was lifted into the air. More cracks formed as it broke into pieces. Small bits that were surely desks and computers fell from the shattered skyscraper only to be stopped mid-fall.

The same happened to the buildings near the now destroyed tower. Some stayed more intact than others. Whatever was causing this was spreading outwards. I picked up my pace. I tried to keep a steady, brisk-walk, but the anxiety and unknown of the unseen force that was moving toward me caused me to run. My heart pounded in my ears as I sprinted down the streets. Hue easily kept up with me. I wasn't sure he even knew why I was running.

The sound of buildings breaking apart increased, gaining on me. I had next to not no endurance and was quickly tiring out. Before I knew it, my feet were no longer touching the ground. I was being lifted into the air. I flailed my arms and legs, doing anything I could to propel myself forward. Nothing worked. Terrified, I slowly rotated to my side, watching as I drifted further and further from the ground and up to where to buildings we being torn apart. Hue flew up to me and landed on my side. He looked around us confused.

"You need to find somewhere to hide," I told him above the noise. "The streets are still intact. Go underground somewhere."

He looking at me for a moment before taking off in flight. I felt the back of my shirt tighten. My body turned but otherwise didn't move much. The grip on me released and was replaced by a similar pull at the back of my shirt collar.

"You're not strong enough. You have to leave me."

Hue released me again and flew up to hover above me. His body brightened as white light engulfed him. His body grew, expanding until he was several times his original size. When the light faded, I saw that his black horns were longer and twin rows of black spines trailed down his back. My eyes widened as his mouth opened and he moved closer to me. Gently, he took me in his mouth by the back of my shirt. He dived down so that he wouldn't have to weave through the floating debris. The wind hit against my face, stinging my eyes and making them water. Far ahead of us the white pillars had grown several times wider leaving only thin slits of the outside world visible.

"We need to get underground!" I shouted out to him.

I gritted my teeth as Hue moved his head around, looking for a suitable place. The city was getting brighter and brighter. Even without the wind, original becoming nearly impossible to see. Hue stopped turned his head, instead, focusing on one direction and picking up speed. I covered my face with my arms as I was blindly carried forward.

Suddenly the light was gone and Hue slowly to a stop. I opened my eyes as I was set down inside an underground parking garage. Hue returned to his smaller size as I stood from the concrete ground. The garage was filled with grey vans that had Uni-Cell printed in black on the rear doors and sides. From the entrance I could see solid white, only broken up by pieces of buildings breaking off and raising upwards. The ground then began to shake. Small trimmers at first that were steadily grounded.

I went over to the nearest van and tried the doors. Locked. It was the same with the next one I tried and the one after that. I kept trying vans until I was stopped by Hue pulling at my jacket. He stuck his head into my pocket and pulled out the key. I took it and held it up to the back doors on a van. A white line appeared down the middle and the doors slid to the sides. We both went inside and I closed the door behind us. The rumbling had gone silent, so did the shaking.

I sighed and sat to the floor. I stared at the grey sliding doors as they stood quietly. The gave no indication as to what was happening to the city beyond them. Where they even connected to Goldsboro anymore. If the van got destroyed what would happen? I wasn't concerned about it at the moment. I was too tired. Exhaustion flooded my body as I laid back. Hue flew by and laid over my chest. He yawned and closed his eyes. I did the same.


	14. Chapter 14

When I woke up, Hue had been sitting on my chest and was gnawing on the collar of my shirt. I blew my breath at him, hoping that he'd get annoyed and leave me alone to sleep. Instead, he sneezed on my face. He flew off when I sat up and whipped my face with the bottom of my shirt. I held out my shirt and stared down drool covered holes he had ripped into the fabric. The wet spot had already gone cold.

I looked back up when Hue returned and landed on my lap. He had a can of food in his mouth. It was labeled mixed meat. Not too far away, near the top of a pile, there was a cardboard box with a hole ripped into. Box shreddings littered the floor around it. There were claw marks on the other boxes around it as well. He must have been pretty hungry to go through the trouble of ripping open a box to take out a single can.

Hue dropped the can on my lap. The label had torn on his teeth, ripping it so that the paper hung from the can by just one end. "Alright, give me a minute."

Taking the can, I stood up and went to the pile of supplies that I more or less hoarded a while back. I took out a bowl from one box and a spoon from another. I scooped out the liquidy meat mixture onto the bowl. Which was as hard with its rubbery texture without Hue trying to eat out of the can while I worked. I set the food to the floor and took another bowl and filled it with one of the many water bottles we had. While Hue ate, I took out a can of canned scrambled eggs and, while using the same spoon, sat down next to him and ate.

The eggs were as tasteless as any other food in the cans would have been. There wasn't like there was an abundance of decent food that was kept in storehouses around the city anyway. I rarely ever ate eggs and the few times I did, they had always had the same chewy, rubbery consistency. I wasn't personally a fan of it. I looked up at the center of the ceiling. It was still showing a night sky. Far away, a small white object shot through the stars. My gaze drifted down to the rest of the library. The black bookcases that lined the walls were entirely empty. The only places they were filled was where the piles of boxes next to me sat and a bit further down where I had left my only book and two sheets of paper.

Sometime after I had finished eating my second can if food, I took off my jacket and set it on the back of one of the chairs. The dark splatters from the enforcer blood had dried and stained the mid-grey cloth. I doubted that it would wash out. To pass the time, I set myself to organizing my mess of boxes. It wasn't much else I could do. I started by setting pillows, blankets, extra clothing, and towels on the topmost shelf. However, I did have to stand on a chair to reach it. Under that, I place medical items like bandages, gauze and rubbing alcohol. I did even remember getting those. I also set hand soap, paper towels, and toilet paper there too. Ii was here I realized the library did have a sink. Or a bathroom for that matter. That was a problem for later on.

On the next shelf down I set bags of rice and water bottles. There was enough of both to fill the shelf on their own. The next held plates, bowls and boxes of utensils. The next two shelves were filled with canned foods and loaves of bread. Lastly, the bottom shelf held cooking pots and pans. There was no kitchen within the library. It would be room temperature canned food for a while. Once I was done, I was left with a good-sized pile of boxes that I had nowhere to put. I end up flattening them and stuffing them into the bottom shelf of the neighboring bookcase.

Hue had settled himself on the pile of blankets I had stacked and was taking a nap, leaving me to entertain myself. I tried reading through the poorly named 'How to live a more efficient life' self-help book. I skimmed through the few pages I had already read, but once I had reached a new part I was hit with a wave of boredom and disinterest. I drop the back on the shelf and turned to check out the table.

I took a seat at it and it lit up. Like last time, it displayed a simplified map with a grey dot. When I taped it. The map zoomed in and the words 'Goldsboro' were typed out. However, this time there was a line going across the name. I touched the small 'i' icon and text of information came up. I skimmed through until I reached a section that wasn't there before.

‘The once thriving city is now nothing more than rubble hovering over the area where it once stood. An unknown force is responsible for this strange and isolated incident to the once great city. It now sits a colorless, husk of a city vacant of life.' Everyone in Goldsboro was gone. Or dead. Dead was probably more accurate.

I closed the information block and a colorful icon popped up. It took the place of the grey dot that marked the location of Goldsboro. It was seven circles, each one a different color. There was a grey one at the center, surrounded by six colored ones with blue at the top and red at the bottom. Each one was outlined by a darker hue of its color. I wasn't sure what to make of this icon. I touched the icon and the map zoomed out. I tried touching other places on it, but nothing else happened. I walked around the table, testing other places, still, nothing changed.

Eventually, I gave up and went back to reading my book. This time I flipped all the way to the last chapter; 'What that to do when you are unable to move forward and success is unattainable'. The entire four-page chapter was about how if a person reached this point then they were a failure as a person and should cease consuming resources that more effective people could be using. I could see why Hines continued having these printed. This seemed like something that matched with his skewed beliefs.

I left the book sitting on the table and went over two the stocked shelves. Reaching up, I dragged down two pillows and some blankets. I awoke Hue from his nap in the process. He wasn't pleased with me disturbing him. He flew up to the top of the shelf and stretched. His black tongue stuck out when he yawned. I took the blankets and pillows to the opposite side of the library than the door.

I made a makeshift bed and laid down. It wasn’t much but it was better than the bed in the basement of the Uni-Cell tower. I was far tired but I figured taking a nap would pass the time. For a long while, I laid there watching the ceiling of stars. Unlike last time, the dark say had hits of color mixed within it. They were like thin clouds of mist. Not all of the stars were as white as I had seen them at first either. It was faint, but I was able to see that some of them shined red, orange, yellow, and even blue. It was a wonderful sight.

I spent so much time laying there that the lights of the library dimmed as if they were on motion sensors. Hue slept soundly at my side. His front half was mostly on the part of the pillow that wasn’t under my head. I could hear the sound of him breathing near my ear. I couldn’t help but think back to when he had suddenly grown huge and carried me to the parking garage. I had no idea that he could do something like that. It made me wonder what else he could do. There was a lot about Hue that I didn’t know. I didn’t know much about anything in all honesty.

The key I used to get in this place originally belonged to Hines. That meant that all of this was supposed to be his. Was this why he wanted to kill me so badly even though the Overseers had abandoned him? Did he know he could escape the destruction of the city with it? The Overseers knew about the key. Did that mean they gave it to him? If that was true, then why didn’t they take it back? I had so many questions about this place but no way to get answers.

I turned my head and looked out over to where I could see the doors to the library from under the table. I wondered when it would be safe to go back outside. Maybe wait of a full day just to be safe. After that, depending on where the doors open up, I could find a way out of the city. Maybe take a van out. Not that I had any idea how to drive. It would be worth a try but I wasn’t in much of a hurry to get up and leave. I had no idea how long I had been asleep for, but I had only been away for a few hours. I wanted to wait at least a day before reentering the city. Hopefully, whatever it was that was destroying Goldsboro would have passed by then.

I shifted to my side on the makeshift bed and stared at the colors on Hue's back. There were six now. Going from red on his head to orange on the end of his tail. There was so much color in one place. It was nice to look at. I reached out and pet his back. One of Hue’s whiskers shifted but otherwise, he didn’t move. I hoped that wherever we ended up after all this, we would be able to have someplace where we could live safely.

"Ow, what?" I shouted as I opened my eyes. The brighter lights of the library were on again. Looking up, I saw Hue staring down at me. His little claws were pressed into my collarbone. One of his whiskers twitched as he stared down at me. "Are you hungry again?"

He jumped off my chest and flew over to the far side of the library. Sensing his movement, the main lights of clicked back on. I groaned from the pain of the sudden bright lights. Once my eyes had adjusted I stood up and stretched before slowing following after him. Hue wasn't by the shelf of food like I'd thought he would be, instead, he was hovering in front of the doors.

I figure that he wanted to go back outside. Before going to the door, it took my black stained jacked off the back of the chair and put it on. I took the key out of its pocket and joined Hue at the door. The key did not need to pass through it for the door to open. The wind blew into the library as what remained of Goldsboro was revealed to us. The parking garage that we had hidden within was gone, exposing the lot around us to the harsh white sunlight. Another gust of wind blew, kicking up a dusty haze that rolled through the city like a low bearing cloud.

I stepped down, out of the doorway of the van and looked around. The city had pretty much been completely leveled. Only foundations and cracked pieces of walls remained attached to the ground. The roads were the only thing that looked remotely untouched. Everything else was hovering fix in the cloud-covered sky above where they had been before. I put the key back into my pocket and the door closed behind me.

I circled around to the driver's side of the van and tested the handle of the door. To my surprise, it opened. The seats were a smooth, shiny grey material. The steering wheel was made of the same material. A key hung from the rearview mirror by a thin string. I stepped into the van and sat down. Looking around the steering wheel, I found the insertion for the key.

Taking the key down, I pushed it inside and turned but nothing happened. It did move far so I tried the other direction. The engine started. Lights on the dashboard turned on. Numbers and letters shined white at me. I didn't have a clue what they meant. I had never driven before. I only knew this much because I had seen someone, a delivery driver, do it before. I was sure that they also did something with their feet. I looked down at the small bit of floor in front of me and that there were push pedals there.

I tried the wide one first. Nothing happened, not even when I pressed down on it harder. When I tried the long pedal next to it, the engine grew louder until I lifted my foot off. The van never moved though. Sitting back in the seat, I tried to think back to when I had seen the person start up the car. There was the key, the pedals, the strap. I glanced to my side to see a dark grey strap attached to the inner wall of the van. On it was a small bit of metal with a square-like hole cut out of it. I took it and looked over to the other side of me. There was a hunk of plastic with a slit in it that looked the right size. When I tried it, the metal part clicked in perfectly and stayed when I released it.

I reached out to closed the door. Vehicles always had their doors closed when they were moving, so I figured that it was part of the process. But before I did, I called Hue inside. At the sound of my voice, he looked up from his spot in the front of the van. He flew inside with me and landed on the seat on my side. I closed the door and tried the pedals again. Nothing new happened.

I sighed. "I guess we're walking."

I frustratingly pushed on the pedals as Hue moved over toward me. He looked over the lit numbers. He sniffed at the lever-like thing that was sticking out from the side of the steering wheel. He then set this hand on it and pushed down. We were both throwing forward as the van lurched back. I slammed my foot down on one of the pedals and it began moving fast. Hue latched onto me and I quickly switched to the other one. We both lurched forward when the van stopped.

"Okay, okay," I said under my breath as I patted Hue's back.

After taking a minute to reaffirm myself, I pulled Hue off of my chest and set him back on the seat next to me. I looked over the lever that Hue had pushed down. While keeping my foot on the break, I pushed it back up. There was a clicking noise as a small red pointer moved to under a P. The P was followed by an R, which the pointer had previously been at, and was preceded by an N, and then a D, and finally an L. PRNDL. It was easy to guess that the first two represented park and reverse. I shifted the lever to N and gently released my foot off the break. The van began to roll slowly forward for a short while before stopping and then moving backward.

"No, that's not right either," I said to myself. I stopped the van and moved the lever down until the pointed was under the D.

This time when I released the break the van only rolled forward. I gently pressed the other pedal and it picked up speed. Nervously, I grabbed onto the wheel with both hands and turned it. The van turned with it. I pointed the van out towards the sloped exit of the parking garage. It had to push the speed pedal down further to get the van up the hill, but I managed to get it up onto the street. Progress was slow at first. That jot from earlier had made me nervous after all, but after I became more comfortable, I was able to up to speed fifty without getting nervous. I didn't know what fifty represented but felt proud of myself.

Hue had made himself comfortable in the seat as we made our way through what remained of Goldsboro. It was almost hard to believe how much had changed in such a short time. I had no idea where I was heading. My plan was to follow the road until I came across somewhere else to live. Hopefully, there was another city nearby where I could find a job. I had never considered what I wanted to do with myself if I had a chance to choose what I did with my life. Working at my cubicle was all I had ever known. Maybe when I got to wherever I was going to end up I'd get a similar job. Or maybe not. I wasn't sure yet.

Soon enough we arrived at the warehouse area of the city. It was just as broken as everywhere else. We passed under shadows of crumbled buildings and shattered glass. The shards of which reflected small specks of glittering light all over the ground. Once had gone further through the drive we entered into an area that I had never been to before. The foundations were buildings once stood became few and far between.

I stopped the van. We had reached a place were on dirt and rock covered the land. Patches of grass grew sparsely between each other. I had never seen so much open space before. The land stretched out over the horizon. It dipped in hills and slopes, in ways that I had never seen before. It was rather daunting to see but it was far better than staying in Goldsboro.

With a deep breath, I resumed the drive forward. To my side, Hue sat up in the seat, his small hands pressed on the frame in front of him. At first, I thought he that was just as curious about the outside world as I was. Then we passed through some kind of invisible wall. I felt it pass over us like and shiver. On the other was a world of color. Green grass covered the once barren land. Trees dotted the landscape and overhead a brilliant blue sky sat. Small spots of color dotted patches of the area within the grasses. There were so many colors, for more than just the six on Hue’s back. It a bit overwhelming, but I moved the van forward to this new world.


End file.
